A federal judge in Texas ordered a federal agency, created 55 years ago to assist minority business owners, to open business to all races.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman said the agency violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause through the agency’s basis that some races are “’socially or economically disadvantaged’ and … thus entitled to services.” The ruling bars the agency from using an applicant’s race to determine if they can receive assistance.
“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,” Pittman wrote in the ruling. “The [Minority Business Development Agency] has done so for years. Time’s up.”
The MBDA was established during the Nixon administration as a division of the Department of
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