As National Legal and Policy Center noted this March, the case has been a hustle from the start. The claims were based on an inconclusive consultant's report in the mid Nineties prepared at the behest of then-Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and on an even less credible lawsuit filed in 1997 by a black North Carolina farmer named Timothy Pigford. That suit eventually gained class-action status. Plaintiffs' lawyers managed to convince the USDA into resolving claims through blanket rather than case-by-case mediation. In April 1999, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee, approved a consent decree that allowed black farmers a choice between "Track A" and "Track B" financial settlements. The overwhelming majority chose Track A, which made them eligible for relief of $50,000 per family plus exemption from outstanding loans and tax liability. Yet neither Pigford nor co-plaintiff Cecil Brewington had cited any specific cases of racial discrimination in USDA credit or grant programs. None of the thousands of plaintiffs were required to show evidence of discrimination. Some of the "farmers" had never farmed in their lives. And if this can be believed, the number of potential claimants has jumped to at least 80,000, remarkable feat of class-action recruitment considering that the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture counted fewer than 33,000 black-owned farms in this country.This payout has been waiting for a long time, hiding in the shadows waiting for a lame duck moment. Big Government has the scoop on Shirley Sherrod's involvement. The Senate approved a 4.5$ BILLION payout to the Native Americans' lawsuit, in addition to the black farmers.
Grievances all around. Payouts all around. PayBACK all around.
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