Former Trump Adviser Could Stop Biden’s Race Based Bailouts

Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller is fighting to stop the Biden administration from giving bailouts on the basis of race.

According to The Washington Free Beacon:

The American Rescue Plan Act includes billions of dollars in direct payments and loan forgiveness earmarked for minority farm owners and entrepreneurs. Framed as a milestone for racial justice, conservative legal groups say the policies are unconstitutional because they discriminate on the basis of race, violating equal protection principles.

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The legal challenges are an early setback for the Biden administration’s racial equity agenda. A program that tried to buoy minority restaurant owners has already been blocked by a federal appeals court. A second program that targets farmers and ranchers of color appears to be in serious jeopardy.

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“President Biden has cruelly betrayed the civil rights movement by explicitly and invidiously punishing Americans on account of their ancestry or skin color,” Miller told the Washington Free Beacon. “America First Legal will not relent in defense of equal rights and equal justice, the two sacred pillars upon which our liberty stands.”

The American Rescue Plan Act included $29 billion to help restaurant owners make payroll. The act directed the Small Business Administration to distribute that money only to certain people over the first three weeks of the program. Those “priority applicants” were defined as African American, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American restaurant owners, per a different federal law and the agency’s regulations.

The rule was challenged by Knoxville, Tennessee bar owner Antonio Vitolo, who won in the Sixth Circuit when a divided three-judge panel ruled for Vitolo on May 27.