In a huge victory against the racist diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda, a federal judge has ruled the Biden administration’s Minority Business Development Agency has long violated the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees by punishing “disfavored” groups — in this case white small business owners.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman for the Northern District of Texas likened the agency’s use of race-based criteria in awarding taxpayer-funded assistance to the discriminatory actions of 19th-century American businesses that hung “Irish Need Not Apply” signs or “Blacks Need Not Apply” placards during the Jim Crow era.
“The MBDA advertises services exclusively for some races but not others,” the judge wrote in his decision. “While the Agency’s work may help alleviate opportunity gaps faced by MBEs [minority business enterprises], two wrongs do not make a right. And the MBDA’s racial presumption is a wrong.”
Pittman granted summary judgment for two of the three plaintiffs and issued a permanent injunction barring the federal government from using the agency to award benefits based on race.
The lawsuit was filed last year by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of three entrepreneurs from Florida, Texas, and Wisconsin who sought assistance from the Minority Business Development Agency.
Jeffrey Nuziard, Ph.D., is a veteran, researcher, and CEO of Sexual Wellness Centers of America in Texas, according to the lawsuit. Christian Bruckner, “a disabled immigrant who fled Communist Romania in the 1970s to seek a better life in America,” operates a federal contracting
