FILE - Co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund Arian Simone, center left, and Ayana Parsons, center right, speak to journalists outside the James Lawrence King Federal Building in Miami, as they leave with their legal team following a hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
The lawsuit against the Fearless Fund, the Atlanta-based firm that has helped grow popular companies like beauty retailer Thirteen Lune and restaurant chain Slutty Vegan, has been closely watched as a bellwether in the growingin college admissions, conservatives have targeted dozens of companies and government institutions and challenged a wide array of programs and policies bolstering diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI.
“By strategically avoiding a Supreme Court ruling that could have eliminated race-based funding, we protected vital opportunities for the entire Black and brown community,” Crump said in a statement.In statement, Blum said “it is to be hoped race-exclusive programs like the one offered by the Fearless Fund will be stopped and opened to everyone, regardless of their race.
David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at New York University’s School of Law, said the decision to settle the lawsuit was not surprising because “the gamble you are making in cases like this is that if you continue fighting you will get more adverse rulings that have the potential to cause wider damage.”