Federal judge orders minority-business agency opened to all races

A federal judge in Texas has ordered a 55-year-old federal agency created to help minority-owned businesses to open its doors to all races, a ruling that potentially imperils dozens of government programs that also presume racial minorities are inherently disadvantaged.that businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos and other minorities are disadvantaged violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

“If this holding withstands appeal, it would immediately disqualify any federal program that operates on a presumption that people of color are socially disadvantaged,” said Noah Feldman, a constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School.

Under the law, “Oprah Winfrey is presumptively disadvantaged, while Plaintiffs and even more disadvantaged Americans are not,” Pittman wrote. “While illogical, this wouldn’t be a problem if the presumption wasn’t based on race.”The opinion cited the Supreme Court’s Harvard-UNC decision more than 30 times — a sign that the ruling’s influence is extending beyond academia.

He expects that the MBDA ruling, taken in tandem with the recent SBA 8 decision, will accelerate a shift away from explicit references to race to qualify for certain federal programs and doing away with the government’s presumption of disadvantage.“We should probably see a whole host of other federal programs beginning to make that shift that the 8 program did,” Westhill said.

“To say that I am disappointed in the Texas court decision regarding MBDA programs would be a grave understatement,” said Sen. Ben Cardin , who led efforts to make the MBDA permanent in 2021. “Along with constitutional experts, I am still reviewing the finer details of the court decision, but what I do know is that MBDA programs to support minority communities throughout rural, urban and suburban America must continue.”“We cannot allow this court ruling to reverse this progress,” he added.

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