Hispanic Farmers Discrimination Case Suffers Another Setback

“Hispanic farmers suffered yet another blow to their hopes to end discrimination against them by the USDA as the Supreme Court denied their petition for a writ of certiorari in their ongoing lawsuit Garcia v. Vilsack. Additionally, Judge James Robertson has scheduled a status conference for Feb 5, at 11 AM to discuss the disposition of the case.”

“‘While we are extremely disappointed by the Supreme Court’s denial of our cert petition,’ said Stephen Hill (DC), of Howrey LLP, the farmers’ lawyer, ‘we shall continue to press the government to do the right thing and come to the table and engage in good faith negotiations to resolve the claims of these farmers who have suffered for decades. The government cannot hide behind the technicality of a litigation class not having been certified (notwithstanding the fact that the African-American farmers’ case, which is identical to the Hispanic farmers’, was certified and settled years ago) to deny simple justice to Hispanic farmers who have suffered the same discrimination as African-American farmers. Our farmers need justice, too,’ Hill said. ‘Perhaps the bitterest pill is that this Administration, including the President, Secretary Vilsack and Attorney General Holder, have all pledged to end discrimination—and yet they selectively agree to compensate only one victim group in a just and efficient manner and require Hispanic farmers to run the gauntlet of expensive, inefficient and repetitive individual lawsuits that can serve no other purpose than to increase exponentially the cost of achieving justice in a case where the underlying discrimination is both admitted and well documented. In the face of the Administration’s steadfast refusal to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve these valid claims, our farmers, who are all US citizens and taxpayers, question the honesty of the pledge.’”

“Garcia v Vilsack, which seeks to remedy the damages suffered at the hands of the Department of Agriculture by Hispanic farmers who are denied equal access to United States Department of Agriculture (‘USDA’) loan programs in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (‘ECOA’), 15 U.S.C. § 1691 et seq., was filed in 2000. To date, no money has been received by any of the plaintiffs in this case.”