Judge denies request to halt priority status for women and minority restaurant owners seeking aid

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."