On June 22, 2026, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) published an opinion concluding that the USDA’s ability to waive fees for members of socially disadvantaged groups violated the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee.
USDA runs several conservation programs, including the Conservation Stewardship Program, and may offer “technical assistance” to farmers and ranchers who qualify for these programs. By statute, USDA can charge fees to farmers and ranchers for its technical assistance. However, the governing statute also allows USDA to waive these fees for “socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.” Socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers are defined in the statute as those belonging to groups “whose members have been subjected to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice.”
OLC’s opinion stated that Congress failed to make the “contemporaneous, particularized findings of unlawful racial discrimination” needed to justify the statute’s creation of race-based fee waivers. OLC further found the waivers were not narrowly tailored to remedy specific instances of past racial discrimination. As such, OLC determined the statute’s provision of race-based waivers failed strict scrutiny. Applying similar logic, OLC found that the statute offered illegal “special treatment” based on sex, also violating the equal protection clause.
OLC’s opinions guide how the Executive Branch acts, but they do not have the force of law and cannot repeal statutes that Congress passed. In a press release, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins expressed support for OLC’s determination.