Resource: Defy Ventures, Inc. v. Small Business Administration

This case challenges the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) and Department of the Treasury’s unlawful and irrational decision to categorically deny access to the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”) to small businesses owned by individuals with criminal histories. The SBA’s actions run directly contrary to the statutory text of the CARES Act, which requires that “all” small businesses “shall” be eligible for the PPP, Congress’s emergency lifeline to small business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than aiding people and businesses in need—the entire purpose of the PPP—these restrictions do the opposite: they cause irreparable harm to business owners who are disproportionately Black and Latinx and live in communities disproportionately suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic and harmed by the criminal-legal system. In this time of unprecedented crisis, the SBA is imposing an unfair and unlawful barrier for business owners striving to maintain economic security and overcome the severe challenges faced by individuals with criminal histories.