Judges Halt Race and Gender Priority for Restaurant Relief Grants

The business owners who brought the suits are among the non-priority applicants that have been paid, the agency said in court filings. On June 1, the S.B.A. paid $187,753 to the owners of the Lost Cajun, $640,425 to Penn Hotel Sports & Raw Bar, and $104,590 to Jake’s Bar and Grill.

Conservative groups backed their suits. The Texas case was brought by America First Legal, a group run by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to President Donald J. Trump, and three other Trump administration officials.

“The Biden administration has inflicted needless pain and suffering on countless Americans through its deplorable and unconstitutional scheme that sent restaurant owners — on the basis of their race — to the back of the line for a limited pool of funds,” Mr. Miller said in a statement.

The Tennessee case was filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which last week won another victory against a Biden administration program that prioritized business owners based on race. A federal judge in Wisconsin halted a $4 billion debt relief program for minority farmers, ruling that the farmers who filed the lawsuit were likely to win their claim that the government’s use of race-based criteria in the administration of the program violated their right to equal protection.

“The impact of Covid-19 did not discriminate by race, and neither should Covid relief,” Rick Esenberg, the president of Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said in a statement.

Mr. León, who is Latino, said he planned to use the $285,000 he was promised to raise his workers’ wages, hire more staff, pay overdue bills and expand his operating hours, which are currently limited to three days a week. Customers are eager to dine out again, but without cash, he can’t ramp up his operations, he said.

“We’re super busy and need more staff, but we can’t bring them in because we can’t afford them,” he said. “The worst-case scenario is that we can’t get out of this vicious circle. If we don’t get this grant, it might mean the end of Amilinda.”