[April 8, 2025] Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), an organization of top attorneys that regularly defend Americans’ constitutional rights sends letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to raise awareness about dozens of buried regulations that discriminate based on race and (frequently) sex in violation of our Constitution and civil rights laws. In the letter, SLF suggests that USDA review these regulations as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to stop unconstitutional discrimination.
The Trump Administration has shown an abiding commitment to ending all forms of discrimination that the Biden Administration smuggled in under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Like all agencies, USDA was directed under President Trump’s Executive Order 14219 (EO 14219) to “commence the deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state.” It directs agency heads to initiate a review of all regulations within their jurisdiction to identify regulations that are unconstitutional or “raise serious constitutional difficulties.”
SLF has extensive experience litigating and stopping Biden-era discriminatory USDA programs—stopping loan forgiveness programs that excluded farmers solely because they were white and stopping eight disaster relief programs the excluded farmers solely because they were white men.
Identifying discriminatory regulations can be challenging as many of the dozens of regulations identified by SLF are buried deep in federal regulations and are easily missed. But until they are rooted out, they lay as a dormant tool for a future administration to resort to the “sordid business, this divvying us up by race.” SLF stands ready to assist USDA as it restores its commitment to colorblindness and equality for America’s farmers. They certainly deserve it.
Being a farmer or a rancher is a risky business. Even though America’s producers secure our Nation’s food supply, one drought can wipe out a producer’s entire season’s crops, one wildfire can kill an entire herd, and one hurricane can destroy an entire orchard. Natural disasters do not discriminate. Neither should the USDA. This industry is far too essential to disadvantage those who work to put literal food on the tables of Americans based on their skin color or sex. The Constitution promises equal treatment to all. It leaves no room for discrimination, especially not against the hardworking farmers of this country.
As SLF points out in its letter: “USDA has a valuable opportunity to restore public confidence in the agency’s commitment to one of America’s core principles—equality. USDA should begin the process of ridding its regulations of this reprehensible form of discrimination once and for all by providing the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs all regulations containing the “socially disadvantaged” category.”
Read SLF’s full letter to USDA.