Federal judge orders minority-business agency to service White people too

FREOPP President Avik Roy weighs in on the Supreme Court decision to end race-based college admissions. A federal judge in Texas has ruled a government agency designed to help minority-owned businesses cannot refuse assistance to White applicants. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman on Tuesday ruled in favor of a group of White business-owners who sued the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), alleging the agency unconstitutionally gives preferential treatment to non-White entrepreneurs.  “The Agency uses a codified list of preferred races/ethnicities to determine who gets benefits and who doesn’t,” Pittman wrote in a 93-page order. “The Agency presumes anyone from the listed groups is ‘socially or economically disadvantaged’ and is thus entitled to services. Anyone outside those groups — white or otherwise — is presumptively not disadvantaged and thus not entitled to benefits.” The MBDA was established by President Nixon in 1969 and made into a permanent agency by President Biden in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. As its name implies, the agency provides access to capital, contracts and market opportunities for minority business enterprises (MBEs).  HARVARD REACTS TO SUPREME COURT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION RULING: DIVERSITY IS ‘ESSENTIAL TO ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE’ The Minority Business Development Agency is a U.S....