A conservative group, the American American Alliance for Equal Rights, argued that the grant program violated section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act.A U.S.
Alphonso David, Fearless Fund’s legal counsel who serves as president and CEO of The Global Black Economic Forum, said all options were being evaluated to continue fighting the lawsuit.The legal effort to dismantle workplace diversity programs has suffered its share of setbacks as well, reflecting polarized opinions among liberal and conservative judges on the issue.
The court ordered the Fearless Fund to suspend its Strivers Grant Contest, which provides $20,000 to businesses that are majority owned by Black women, for the remainder of the lawsuit that is being litigated in a federal court in Atlanta. The ruling reversed a federal judge's ruling last year that the contest should be allowed to continue because Blum's lawsuit was likely to fail.
The appeals panel also rejected the Fearless Fund's contention that Blum had no standing because the lawsuit was filed on behalf of three anonymous women who failed to demonstrate that they were “ready and able” to apply for the grant or that they had been injured by not being to do so. “We are going to see some pro-DEI outcomes in liberal circuits and anti-DEI outcomes in conservative circuits,” Glasgow said.
The National Venture Capital Association, an trade group with hundreds of member VC firms, filed an amicus brief defending the Fearless Fund’s grant program as “modest but important” step to toward creating equal opportunity in an industry that has historically excluded Black women.