NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A federal judge has ruled against a conservative legal group that sought an immediate halt to the priority status for restaurants and bars owned by women and certain minorities in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package.
U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough in Knoxville, Tennessee, issued the opinion denying a temporary restraining order last week in the lawsuit brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. The group is appealing the decision.
The judge wrote that “Congress has gathered myriad evidence suggesting that small businesses owned by minorities … have suffered more severely than other kinds of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the Government’s early attempts at general economic stimulus … disproportionately failed to help those businesses directly because of historical discrimination patterns.”
Similarly, McDonough said “Congress had before it evidence showing that woman-owned businesses suffered historical discrimination that exposed them to greater risks from an economic shock like COVID-19, and that they received less benefit from earlier federal COVID-19 relief programs.”
The lawsuit targets the three-week period from May 3 until Monday during which the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund has only been processing and funding requests from businesses owned by women; veterans; or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.