Some of the nation’s great stories have played out in courtrooms. “The Farmer’s Lawyer,” Sarah Vogel’s account of her 1980s successful class action lawsuit on behalf of small Midwest farmers victimized by the Agriculture Department’s Farm Home Administration (FmHA), is one of them.
Though she may not have had it in mind as the drama began, Vogel, a North Dakota native and heir to generations of progressive North Dakota activists and politicians, was prepared and positioned to take on this David and Goliath fight, which pitted a handful of small farmers who were losing their livelihoods, some even their homes, against the bureaucracy of the Reagan-era FmHA.
I was surprised to learn how much control the FmHA had over the finances of farmers who had borrowed from it. Some farmers who had fallen behind on their loan payments were forced to turn over their farm’s income to the FmHA, which then decided which of the farmers’ bills it would pay and which it would not. At times, local FmHA functionaries worked actively to drive Vogel’s clients out of business, an odd way, it would seem, for a government agency to extend a helping hand.
Like all good stories, “The Farmer’s Lawyer” is replete with heroes and villains. We meet hard-working farmers and their families who, as farm prices plummeted in the mid 1980’s, were caught in the toils of market forces they could not control. Instead of helping them, the FmHA, as directed by David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s budget director, just made their lives worse.
From the moment the first farmer came to her for help, Vogel, too, was caught. A young single mother in solo practice, Sarah embarked on a path that, while it ended in victory, was hard and long.
Over the years, she encountered bureaucrats interested only in protecting their territory, hearing officers who upheld decisions that they themselves had previously made, and judges whose ears were anything but sympathetic.
Throughout, Vogel brings her characters to life. Her sympathy for her clients becomes ours as well, just as does her anger at the way they have been treated. We hiss and boo at Stockman and the FmHA administrator who apparently discriminated against the Native Americans he was supposed to serve, and we root for her and the families she champions. In this well-told story, we cannot help but be on their side.
Before the journey ends, the battles Sarah fights on her clients’ behalf grow into a full-fledged war. Taking advantage of previous court decisions guaranteeing due process and expanding her suits to class-action status, the amended complaints eventually applied to the entire nation.
After years of stubborn struggle, Sarah received some help. The ACLU offered its assistance, and a giant-killer from the East, Allen Kanner, became her co-counsel at the climactic trial. Ms.Vogel also makes special mention of her father, a former justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, who provided advice and support.
“The Farmer’s Lawyer” has a happy ending. Here, wrongs are set right. FmHA’s bad behavior ceases. But the story is also steeped in the sad irony of how a program intended to help can hurt when administered by uncaring and fumbling hands.
“The Farmer’s Lawyer” is a reminder of what it means to be a real populist, a progressive populist. It is a lesson in how people of good heart, working together, do make a difference. It is a breath of fresh, life-giving air that, thanks to Sarah Vogel, blew again across the Great Plains.
Vogel continued to breathe that air. After her landmark win in the Coleman class action, she still fought for North Dakota farmers, serving as North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture from 1989 to 1997, the first woman elected to such an office in the United States, and later as co-counsel in a class action suit representing Native American farmers versus the Department of Agriculture that, after years of litigation, resulted in $790 million in damages and up to $80 million in loan forgiveness to Native American farmers.
Sarah Vogel is the kind of lawyer I have always wanted to meet, and thanks to “The Farmer’s Lawyer” I finally have.
“The Farmer’s Lawyer,” by Sarah Vogel (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021, 407 pages).
Ken Winkes is a retired teacher and high school principal, who grew up in northwest Washington State, attended college in California during the 1960s and now lives near the Skagit River about 18 miles from his hometown.
From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2022
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