A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the city of Houston, Texas, from enforcing its minority contracting program, finding it to be unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled that the program, which sets aside certain public contracts for minority-owned businesses, could no longer operate as structured.
Background
The lawsuit was filed by two landscaping companies, Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management, owned by a white married couple, Jerry and Theresa Thompson. The companies claimed that the city’s policies violated their equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment by freezing them out of some contracts due to their race.
The judge agreed, saying that the Supreme Court’s decision in a 2023 case made clear that the government may only treat people differently based on race to remediate specific instances of past unlawful discrimination, which the city provided no evidence to support.
The ruling marked a victory for the plaintiffs, who were represented by the libertarian legal group Pacific Legal Foundation. Erin Wilcox, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement, ‘Equal protection means equal protection for everyone, not preferential treatment for some.’ The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees every business owner the same shot at a government contract, regardless of race.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
