The federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and President Donald Trump that was filed by Red Fire Farm and other organizations over frozen government money will move forward, as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has laid out a schedule of further proceedings.

Judge Rudolph Contreras, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012, is presiding over the case and approved the schedule proposed in a joint status report between the parties. The plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is due by July 18; the defendants’ response and cross-motion is due by Aug. 18; the plaintiffs’ reply and cross-response is due by Sept. 1; and then the defendants’ cross-reply is due by Sept. 15.

Red Fire Farm in Granby and Montague, as well as seven other farms around the U.S., are suing the president, the USDA and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins over the federal government’s freeze of grants and reimbursements. The freeze was put in place following Trump’s Unleashing American Energy executive order directing agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”

The lawsuit, filed in March, previously targeted the Office of Management and Budget and its Director Russell Vought, but an amended complaint filed in May removed those two parties as defendants.

Hana Vizcarra, of the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, is representing the plaintiffs, while interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Silverman represent the defendants.

Vizcarra is arguing the executive order and subsequent freezing of funds is unlawful, violates the U.S. Constitution and, if it continues, could cause these farms to suffer “irreparable injury” if the previously obligated funds are not released. The plaintiffs also argue the order violates the Take Care Clause in the Constitution, which requires a president to uphold laws passed by Congress; the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations; and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

“The Unleashing American Energy Executive Order exceeds presidential authority and usurps legislative authority, conferred by the Constitution on Congress, in violation of the separation of powers,” Vizcarra wrote. “A directive from the president to align spending with policy preferences and half the expenditure of funds appropriated under the [Inflation Reduction Act] does not provide a reasoned basis for an immediate, categorical and indefinite funding freeze and fails to consider reliance interests.”

The plaintiffs, led by Maryland-based Butterbee Farm, are requesting the court declare Section 7 of Trump’s executive order, titled “Terminating the Green New Deal,” to be unconstitutional; vacate USDA’s and OMB’s actions that froze Inflation Reduction Act funds; prevent any future freezing of funds; and immediately reimburse funds that have been spent.

Locally, Red Fire Farm previously received two grants through programs under the USDA umbrella over the last several years and had signed contracts with the federal government. The first was a $23,641 contract with the Natural Resources Conservation Service for a soil health improvement project. Ryan Voiland, owner of Red Fire Farm, purchased compost and other materials needed for a 13-acre field that he expected to be reimbursed for, until the funding freeze took effect.

Voiland’s farm also was awarded a $125,764 contract through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to build a solar canopy at his Granby location in the spot where a farm store and barn burned down in February 2024. The farmer said he had planned to pair those federal grants with a Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources grant, but, at this point, he has lost his leverage and may not be able to complete the project ahead of the state grant’s June deadline.

“For plaintiff Red Fire Farm, the delay in funding puts an additional state grant at risk that is partially funding its solar project,” Vizcarra wrote. “Plaintiffs would not have taken on these projects without the support of the USDA program.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.