when she returned to North Dakota , she began to meet farmers who were also having problems with FmHA on their farm loans . “ These farmers were being treated in the most appalling way by the FmHA , and because I had previously been exposed to the race and sex discrimination of the FmHA , I believed them .”
The Farmer ’ s Lawyer
It was natural for Vogel to gravitate toward helping farmers given her upbringing , she says . “ When I first started working with farmers , it was just a natural fit , my father and grandfather , Frank A . Vogel , did it before me ,” Vogel notes . “ I grew up in the Nonpartisan League ( NPL ), the North Dakota political party which was dedicated to helping family farmers and workers and trying to better their lives .”
She said it was also an advantage to be a female lawyer at the time , because many farmers were hesitant to work with attorneys . “ There were very few female lawyers when I started in 1970 . It was maybe three percent nationally ,” says Vogel . “ Many of the farmers I worked with didn ’ t look at me as a lawyer , but just as Sarah .”
Coleman v . Block , North Dakota Class Action
As more North Dakota farmers came forward , she began to see two primary problems with their treatment by the FmHA . “ Because the FmHA was a government agency , it was required to follow constitutional law ,” says Vogel . “ Like many lawyers , I studied constitutional law , and the constitutional principles of fair hearings and due process were not being followed .”
She also noted , if a farmer was granted a hearing related to a proposed foreclosure or a “ starve-out ” ( where the agency accelerated the loan payments and thereafter would not release any money to the farmer ), the hearing process was deeply flawed . At times , the individual who recommended foreclosure or acceleration would also serve as the hearing officer on an appeal . “ It was a kangaroo court ,” says Vogel .
A federal law that allowed FmHA to defer payments rather than foreclose on farmers was also not being implemented . “ The agency decided that following the deferral law was discretionary and it decided not to implement it in relation to farm foreclosures ,” Vogel says .
“ I realized the only way to deal with this was a class action lawsuit for North Dakota FmHA borrowers . It would ask the court for an injunction to give farmers the right to apply for a deferral and the right to a fair appeal ,” she continues . “ However , after the North Dakota case was successful , it was clear the same practices we had challenged in North Dakota were happening nationwide ; more and more farmers from all over the country were contacting me . The farmers ’ grapevine was pretty efficient .”
Coleman v . Block , National Class Action
The case soon grew to a national lawsuit against the Reagan Administration ’ s Department of Agriculture .
Before litigating the Coleman v . Block case , Vogel notes she had never done a trial or even attended a trial .
Vogel recruited a team of co-counsel , including her father , Robert Vogel ; Allan Kanner , a class action expert then based in Philadelphia ; Burt Neuborne , then the national litigation director for the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) in New York City ; and Dale Reesman , a lawyer from a small firm in rural Boonville , Mo . The team represented the nine original lead plaintiffs , known as “ The North Dakota Nine ,” and additional class representatives from other states when the case became a national class action . “ I was able to get co-counsel with credibility and experience , and my clients were absolutely great ,” she notes .
Vogel pictured with her newly released memoir .
She knew it was going to be difficult to build the case , because she had to first exhaust the deeply flawed administrative hearing process offered by FmHA . “ It took some work , but we were successful in proving this and could move forward with the case .”
Presiding over the case was United States District Court Judge Bruce M . Van Sickle . “ I made it a point to get him as the judge on this case . I knew he was an honorable and fair judge ,” says Vogel . “ He was a real hero in this case .”
The Coleman case was successful in receiving a national injunction to protect 240,000 farmers who had borrowed from FmHA , of whom 52 % were delinquent , from unconstitutional and illegal collection practices . The actions taken by Judge Van Sickle in the ruling of the Coleman case were also the starting point for permanent federal laws adopted by Congress in 1988 to provide farmers with fair appeal processes for USDA programs . These laws were called the “ Coleman reforms ” by Congress .
Vogel left the case in 1985 to become an assistant attorney general , but the case ’ s legal team continued under an amended complaint to protect the decisions made by Judge Van Sickle , and that litigation lasted until early 1989 . “ It was quite the decade ,” she notes .
Vogel says the case changed the path of her legal career . “ It provided the trajectory to become an assistant attorney general , where I wasn ’ t just speaking for FmHA borrowers , but also farmers from the whole state .”
Photo by Lea Black
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