Courts question government contracting racial preferences

After decades of privileges for Asian immigrants and other nonwhites in getting government contracts, judges are wondering how to square this affirmative action with the 14th Amendment.

After two generations of racial preferences, courts are starting to take seriously the 14th Amendment’s requirement of “equal protection of the laws,” finally casting a highly skeptical eye on, for example, affirmative action in government contracting.

Not surprisingly, Washington Post subscribers, many of whom are Beltway bandits, are following developments closely. From the Washington Post news section:

Minority-owned firms fear ‘crisis’ as affirmative action programs fall

Some cases making their way through federal courts could have catastrophic consequences for minority-owned businesses that do work for the federal government.

By Julian Mark

November 11, 2024 at 9:10 a.m. EST

Minority- and women-owned businesses are bracing for the end of affirmative action in federal contracting — and the potential loss of contracts worth at least $70 billion a year — as government programs for “disadvantaged” firms have fallen to legal attack over the past year.

In a seismic shift, a series of court rulings have held that some of the federal government’s largest diversity programs violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, often citing the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to overturn race-conscious college admissions.

As a result, key agencies have dropped race and gender preferences born in the civil rights era and intended to level the playing field by setting aside billions each year in contracting dollars for minority- and women-owned firms. …

Franco said the Biden administration’s decision not to appeal that SBA ruling signaled a major turning point, indicating that the administration agreed the process needed to be changed to comply with the Constitution.

Maybe I’m just being persnickety, but I always thought the federal government’s processes are supposed to comply with the Constitution.

As a result, any programs that similarly presume minorities are disadvantaged may be subject to revamping, he said.

Seriously, it is 2024, not 1969 anymore. Times change.

… Though only about 10 percent of his company’s $19 million in revenue last year came from the federal program, much of the remaining income came from contracts won through the “minority businesses enterprise” program run by the state of Illinois, which Harris predicted would be the next to topple.

“From an African American contracting standpoint, it’s pretty scary to think that these programs won’t be around,” Harris said. “And to try to prepare for them is not necessarily all in our hands. … It’s not like the problems with bias and racism won’t exist anymore.”

This article focuses on black beneficiaries, but Asians (including immigrants) generally get in on the grift too, whereas they are discriminated against in college admissions.

The Biden Administration recently socially constructed the Middle Eastern & North African race, presumably to give them affirmative action payoffs.

Created in the 1960s and ’70s, federal affirmative action programs were adopted to address pervasive race and gender discrimination in the private and contracting sectors. Backlash soon followed from White and male business owners, who said the programs discriminated against them.

It’s not exactly a matter of he said / she said. Government contracting is a zero sum game, so it’s hard to visualize how programs that discriminate in favor of nonwhites wouldn’t also discriminate against whites.