Plaintiffs: Pigford, Keepseagle, Love, Garcia
I am including documentation of court cases against USDA concerning discrimination in the farm loan program. The court has found USDA guilty of discrimination in the case of Pigford and Keepseagle. The court case involving Love and Garcia, as a joint case which has not been granted class-action status, is still being resolved. USDA announced a process to resolve discrimination claims of Hispanic and women farmers on 2/25/2011.
A record of discrimination in USDA’s farm loan program will establish a decision-making process that failed to recognize and rejected valid claims for a farm loan.
Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture under the Obama Administration, has made ending discrimination at USDA a priority during his term in office. Unfortunately, Tom Vilsack failed to make terminating farm subsidies for Hutterite colonies a priority during his term in office.
For a summary of the court cases check the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports in the file in Section 1.
To identify the court cases,
1. Pigford vs. USDA (1997)
Pigford represents African-American farmers
Civil Action No. 97-1978
2. Keepseagle vs. USDA (1999)
Keepseagle represents Native American farmers
Civil Action No. 99-3119
3. Love vs. USDA (2000)
Love represents women farmers
Civil Action No. 00-2502
4. Garcia vs. USDA (2000)
Garcia represents Hispanic farmers
Civil Action No. 00-2445
Section 1: Overview of court cases against USDA concerning discrimination in farm loan program
01, CRS reports for Congress 2010
Section 2: Pigford vs. USDA
01, Pigford vs. USDA, news, Wikipedia
02, Pigford vs. USDA, court case material
03, Pigford vs. USDA, Claims Resolution Act 2010, statements
Section 3: Keepseagle vs. USDA
01, Keepseagle vs. USDA, news, releases
02, Keepseagle vs. USDA, court case material
03, Wilkinson vs. USDA, ALJ Proceeding
Section 4: Love vs. USDA
01, Love vs. USDA, website info, news, releases
Section 5: Garcia vs. USDA
01, Garcia vs. USDA, news, releases, letters, petition
02, Garcia vs. USDA, court case material
Section 6: USDA steps to end discrimination
01, USDA steps to end discrimination
Section 7: National Wildlife Federation vs. USDA