Washington Farmland Trust v. USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) distributes tens of billions of dollars in critical grant funding annually, as an essential part of carrying out its mission of assisting American farmers, improving health and nutrition, ending hunger, and conserving and protecting natural resources. Starting in early 2026, USDA began weaponizing those grant programs to impose the Trump Administration’s ideological views on grant recipients. USDA now requires recipients of USDA grant awards to agree to a series of unlawful terms and conditions that substantially restrict grantees’ speech and programming in support of diversity and equity, bar using grant funding on whatever the administration says is “promoting gender ideology,” and limit grantees’ work in support of immigrants.

Representing five groups that have received USDA grant funding—the Washington Farmland Trust, Agroecology Commons, Oregon Farm Corps, Syracuse-Onondaga Farm Systems Alliance, and TNSE—and co-counseling with FarmSTAND and Earthjustice, we filed suit seeking to vacate the unlawful terms and conditions. The lawsuit challenges the new terms and conditions as a violation of grantees’ First and Fifth Amendment rights, as exceeding USDA’s authority under separation of powers principles and the Spending Clause, and as arbitrary and capricious.