In 1994, I represented a Colorado Springs, Colorado, businessman, a college dropout who found his niche bidding on and building guardrails on federal and state highway projects. Randy Pech developed a statewide reputation for having a sharp pencil, leaving behind well-built projects, and timely completion of subcontract awards. That is, until a day when a bid he knew was the lowest was rejected by the prime contractor, who told Pech that the federal government gave him $10,000 to award the project, not to Pech, but to a competitor based on his race. Pech believed racial preferences in federal highway contracting were unconstitutional and sued.
When his case, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, reached the Supreme Court, the corporate media labeled him an “angry white man” for his demand that the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee be applied to him
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