A coalition of civil rights groups including the ACLU sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for denying coronavirus relief loans to small business owners with criminal records, arguing the restrictive policy violates the law and perpetuates systemic racial injustices by discriminating against people of color.
“The excluded small business owners are more likely to be Black and Latinx because of bias in our criminal legal system, and their communities are hardest hit by Covid-19,” ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, said in a statement. “We won’t stop fighting until this economic lifeline is afforded to all.”
The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Treasury Department initially barred any small business owner convicted of a felony within the past five years from receiving loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was established by the CARES Act.
The SBA slightly loosened the restrictions last week, banning from relief loans anyone who is currently on parole, facing pending charges, or with a felony conviction in the past year.
In their legal complaint against the SBA, the civil rights groups argue that “the criminal-record exclusions are inconsistent with the text and purpose of the CARES Act.”
“They tell a sweeping category of small-business owners across the country that, at a time of acute financial fragility, there is no lifeline for them or their employees,” the complaint reads.
Sekwan Merritt, a black small business owner who is on parole, said in a statement that “the SBA’s discrimination against formerly incarcerated individuals hurts not just those of us who have worked hard to create our own businesses after returning home, but also impacts our families, the people who work for us, and our communities.”
“Through my electrical contracting business, Lightning Electric, I want to provide hope and opportunity for folks who were formerly incarcerated,” said Merritt. “However, as it stands, the SBA blocks the path to economic equality and progress for people who come from underserved communities and who are disproportionately affected by mass incarceration.”
Joanna Wasik, counsel at Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said the United States should “celebrate the accomplishments of formerly incarcerated individuals who are contributing to their communities, not shut them out from aid at a time of acute financial crisis.”
“The SBA’s exclusion compounds the already devastating impacts that communities of color are facing from the Covid-19 pandemic Congress did not provide any exclusions when it passed the CARES Act,” said Wasik, “and the SBA has provided no good reason for them.”
Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously stated that Sekwan Merritt has a pending charge against him. Sekwan Merritt is on parole, he does not have a pending charge.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.