Federal judge in Texas says agency created to help minority-owned businesses must provide assistance to all races

A federal judge in Texas said Tuesday that a US Commerce Department agency 
intended to help minority-owned businesses must offer assistance to all 
individuals, regardless of race, agreeing with White business owners who 
claimed that its policies were unconstitutional.

The ruling from US District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of former 
President Donald Trump, stems from a lawsuit brought by several White 
business owners against the Minority Business Development Agency, which is 
“dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of minority business 
enterprises,” according to its website.

Pittman said that the agency had violated the equal protection clause of 
the Constitution’s 14th Amendment through its reliance on a statutory 
presumption that members of certain minority groups are “‘socially or 
economically disadvantaged’ and … thus entitled to services.” The list of 
groups includes African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans and 
Native Americans, among others.

The judge permanently barred the agency from “considering or using an 
applicant’s race or ethnicity in determining whether they can receive” 
assistance from one of the agency’s dozens of business centers, which help 
businesses with things like securing funding and competing for contracts.

“Plaintiffs all encountered the same obstacle when they sought MBDA 
programming. Because they aren’t on the Agency’s magic list, the Agency 
presumes they aren’t disadvantaged,” Pittman wrote.

“If courts mean what they say when they ascribe supreme importance to 
constitutional rights, the federal government may not flagrantly violate 
such rights with impunity,” the judge wrote. “The MBDA has done so for 
years. Time’s up.”

The MBDA is one of the only federal agencies focused exclusively on 
developing and advocating for minority-owned businesses. The Nixon 
administration established it in 1969 as a division of the US Department 
of Commerce and it was later enshrined into federal law in 2021.

In recent years, conservatives have increasingly turned to federal courts 
in Texas to challenge certain federal programs and actions. The Fort Worth 
division of the Northern District of Texas, where Pittman is one of just a 
few sitting judges, has become an especially favored venue given its 
conservative tilt. In the past, Pittman has issued controversial rulings 
on the Biden administration’s student debt relief policy and a state law 
that banned people ages 18 to 20 from carrying handguns in public.

“To the extent the MBDA offers services pursuant to an unconstitutional 
presumption, that’s fifty-five years too many,” Pittman said in his latest 
ruling. “Today the clock runs out. ‘Yesterday is not ours to recover, but 
tomorrow is ours to win or lose.’”

Tuesday’s ruling underscores the impact of the Supreme Court’s landmark 
decision last year that said colleges and universities could no longer 
take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admissions. 
Pittman cited the court’s majority opinion in that case, writing that 
although it “concerned college admissions, nothing in the decision 
indicates the Court’s holding should be constrained to that context.”

The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2024.

“Like Harvard’s program in SFFA, the MBDA sees ‘an inherent benefit in 
race qua race – race for race’s sake,’” he wrote. “Such disregard for the 
necessity of race or for race-neutral alternatives is unconstitutional.”

The plaintiffs at the center of the case were three White business owners 
who were denied MBDA services. They sued the agency in March 2023 and 
Pittman last year temporarily blocked their local business centers from 
denying them assistance as the lawsuit played out. His new order applies 
to the agency nationwide.

In court papers, Justice Department attorneys representing MBDA pushed 
back against the plaintiffs’ claims, saying, “Any member of a group not 
presumed socially or economically disadvantaged may petition for a 
presumption of disadvantage, regardless of race.”

“And while the application process may vary for individuals not included 
in the MBDA presumptions, there is a pathway for them to access the 
services of the MBDA Business Centers through an assertion of individual 
social or economic disadvantage,” they told the court last year.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on the ruling.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/politics/minority-business-development-
agency-texas-federal-judge-unconstitutional/index.html