Latest news with #affirmativeAction
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Tracking Trump: Republicans reject millionaire tax; Elon Musk's rift with Trump; threats to research publishing; and more
Republicans rejected a 'millionaire tax' as part of President Donald Trump's legislation. Trump officials might ban scientists from publishing in top medical journals. Elon Musk said U.S. DOGE Service has become the government's 'whipping boy.' Trump said Vladimir Putin is 'playing with fire' in his war against Ukraine. The administration wants to upend a $37 billion affirmative action program.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Trump team looks to end $37B program designed to help minority business saying it violates the Constitution
The Trump administration has joined with two white-owned construction companies looking to end a $37 billion program designed to help minority-owned businesses, saying it is 'unconstitutional.' The Indiana -based companies, Mid-America Milling Company and Bagshaw Trucking Inc., sued the Department of Transportation in 2023 over the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, arguing that it should be permanently dismantled. On Wednesday the Department of Justice filed a proposal for a settlement with the DOT to dismantle the program – which was first authorized by Congress in 1983, and serves roughly 49,000 businesses that have been deemed to be disadvantaged. The program is funded by the federal government but administered by states, and allocates at least 10 percent of government funding for transportation infrastructure to such contracting firms. The original complaint described the DBE as 'the largest, and perhaps oldest affirmative action program in U.S. history' and claimed that the program's 'goals' were in fact 'discriminatory barriers' targeting nondesignated racial groups including white Americans. 'The word 'disadvantaged' is simply code for women and certain minorities,' the complaint stated, adding that: 'Disfavored racial groups must compete with the preferred racial groups on an unequal footing. 'Because the DBE program violates the Constitution 's 'promise of equal treatment,' it must be permanently dismantled.' Last January, under the Biden administration, the DOT hit back at the suit, saying that the plaintiffs had 'notably' not identified any current transport construction contracts that had 'race- or gender-based subcontracting goals due to the DOT DBE program.' However, in a new filing on Wednesday, the administration said it had 're-evaluated its position,' in light of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling which blocked race-conscious college admissions. 'Defendants, upon review of the DBE program and their position in this litigation, have determined that the program's use of race- and sex-based presumptions is unconstitutional,' the filing stated. 'Over the past five decades, the federal government imposed a policy of race discrimination in the roadbuilding industry,' Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the conservative nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, told The Washington Post. 'Thousands of workers and small businesses have been victimized, and hundreds of billions have been spent, distorting the market and inflating construction costs for the taxpayers. That ends now.'
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump administration moves to upend $37B affirmative action program
The Trump administration moved Wednesday to dismantle one of the federal government's largest and longest-standing affirmative action programs, siding with two White-owned contracting businesses that challenged its constitutionality. In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Justice Department said that a Transportation Department program that has carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. If a judge approves the proposed settlement, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex, effectively ending its founding mission. 'Over the past five decades, the federal government imposed a policy of race discrimination in the roadbuilding industry,' said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the conservative nonprofit representing the plaintiffs. 'Thousands of workers and small businesses have been victimized, and hundreds of billions have been spent, distorting the market and inflating construction costs for the taxpayers. That ends now.' The settlement is still subject to challenge by a coalition of businesses that intervened in the case after President Donald Trump took office, arguing that the program is essential to removing entrenched barriers that minorities and women face in the $759 billion contracting sector. First authorized by Congress in 1983, the program serves roughly 49,000 businesses designated as 'disadvantaged.' The case was brought in 2023 by Mid-America Milling and Bagshaw Trucking, both Indiana-based transportation companies whose owners alleged they lost out on jobs when the agency began awarding contracts through the 'largest, and perhaps oldest affirmative action program in U.S. history.' The DBE was most recently authorized under the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, as well as through the $105 billion in federal funding for airport and flight safety improvements. In September, U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, a George W. Bush appointee, partially blocked the program on the grounds the plaintiffs were 'likely' to succeed on their claims. A permanent decision was pending before the parties agreed to settle. The DBE program, which is funded by the U.S. government but administered by states, earmarks at least 10 percent of the federal funding for transportation infrastructure to women- and minority-owned contracting firms. At the time of the ruling, the Biden administration argued that the DBE was necessary to help remedy the effects of past and ongoing discrimination in government contracting. But since taking office in January, Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders seeking to end any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures by the government and beyond. The Justice Department, which a few months ago defended the program under President Joe Biden, wrote in Wednesday's filing that it 'reevaluated' its position in light of the June 2023 Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious college admissions. Even before Trump's return to the White House, a number of federal affirmative action programs had been enjoined by the courts on constitutional grounds, with plaintiffs alleging that the Supreme Court's college affirmative action decision barred the government from granting benefits based on race. In September 2023, a Tennessee judge ruled that a Small Business Administration 8(a) program for minority contractors could no longer presume certain ethnic groups were inherently 'disadvantaged' — a key requirement to receive set-asides for government contracts. In March 2024, a federal judge in Texas ordered the 55-year-old Minority Business Development Agency to open its doors to all, including White entrepreneurs. Those court cases were part of a broader wave of resistance to DEI in higher education and the private sector, as well as the idea that certain racial groups are inherently more disadvantaged than others. Proponents of the DBE program — and others that grant preferences based on race and sex — say its loss could prove devastating for underrepresented groups in the government contracting world. Such programs were created in the 1960s and 1970s to address pervasive race and gender discrimination in the private and contracting sectors, the effects of which they say have not been fully erased. Supporters say many businesses will fold if the programs go away.
CNN
21-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
DOJ opens civil rights probe into Virginia high school once at center of Supreme Court case
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia over the use of race in admissions to its top-ranked Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Last year, the US Supreme Court declined to hear arguments over the same allegations, but this investigation signals that the Trump administration will use the civil rights division to challenge affirmative action policies – a longtime hot-button issue for conservatives who claim that such admissions policies focus more on race than they do academic achievement. The investigation follows a referral from the state attorney general who announced Wednesday that his office had found reasonable cause to believe the district and the school discriminated against Asian American students on the basis of race. In a letter Wednesday, DOJ Civil Rights Division Chief, Harmeet Dhillon, confirmed her office will review the matter. The Supreme Court has weighed in on the issue of affirmative action before. In 2023, the high court threw out policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina that considered race in its admissions decisions. Their decision pushed schools to experiment with 'race neutral' policies – such as those based on geography – to promote diversity. The controversy at Thomas Jefferson High School in the Washington, DC, suburbs arose from a policy, which sought 'to mitigate socioeconomic obstacles faced by students of all races' by admitting students from every middle school in the county, CNN has reported A group of parents in Fairfax County sued the school board in 2021, alleging that the new policy sought to balance the student body's racial makeup by 'excluding Asian Americans,' who had comprised 70% of enrollment before the changes. A federal judge in 2022 ordered the school to stop using the new admissions policy, ruling that it was 'racially discriminatory,' but a panel of appeals court judges later reversed, saying that the policy did not disparately impact Asian American students and that the challengers didn't establish that it was adopted with discriminatory intent. Asra Nomani, a former Thomas Jefferson High School parent who has been actively involved in the litigation, told CNN that she is 'elated' by news of the investigation. 'I have always believed this was not an issue of parental advocacy, but of civil rights…this great day for efforts to win merit in America.' In a statement, the Fairfax County Public Schools responded: 'This matter has already been fully litigated. A federal appellate court determined there was no merit to arguments that the admissions policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology discriminates against any group of students. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) division leadership and counsel are currently reviewing the documents released today by the Attorney General and will issue a more detailed response in the coming days. FCPS remains committed to providing a world class education for all of our students.' The Supreme Court also declined to hear similar challenges, including one accusing three elite Boston public schools with violated the Constitution by using a zip-code based admissions policy.
CNN
21-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
DOJ opens civil rights probe into Virginia high school once at center of Supreme Court case
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia over the use of race in admissions to its top-ranked Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Last year, the US Supreme Court declined to hear arguments over the same allegations, but this investigation signals that the Trump administration will use the civil rights division to challenge affirmative action policies – a longtime hot-button issue for conservatives who claim that such admissions policies focus more on race than they do academic achievement. The investigation follows a referral from the state attorney general who announced Wednesday that his office had found reasonable cause to believe the district and the school discriminated against Asian American students on the basis of race. In a letter Wednesday, DOJ Civil Rights Division Chief, Harmeet Dhillon, confirmed her office will review the matter. The Supreme Court has weighed in on the issue of affirmative action before. In 2023, the high court threw out policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina that considered race in its admissions decisions. Their decision pushed schools to experiment with 'race neutral' policies – such as those based on geography – to promote diversity. The controversy at Thomas Jefferson High School in the Washington, DC, suburbs arose from a policy, which sought 'to mitigate socioeconomic obstacles faced by students of all races' by admitting students from every middle school in the county, CNN has reported A group of parents in Fairfax County sued the school board in 2021, alleging that the new policy sought to balance the student body's racial makeup by 'excluding Asian Americans,' who had comprised 70% of enrollment before the changes. A federal judge in 2022 ordered the school to stop using the new admissions policy, ruling that it was 'racially discriminatory,' but a panel of appeals court judges later reversed, saying that the policy did not disparately impact Asian American students and that the challengers didn't establish that it was adopted with discriminatory intent. Asra Nomani, a former Thomas Jefferson High School parent who has been actively involved in the litigation, told CNN that she is 'elated' by news of the investigation. 'I have always believed this was not an issue of parental advocacy, but of civil rights…this great day for efforts to win merit in America.' In a statement, the Fairfax County Public Schools responded: 'This matter has already been fully litigated. A federal appellate court determined there was no merit to arguments that the admissions policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology discriminates against any group of students. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) division leadership and counsel are currently reviewing the documents released today by the Attorney General and will issue a more detailed response in the coming days. FCPS remains committed to providing a world class education for all of our students.' The Supreme Court also declined to hear similar challenges, including one accusing three elite Boston public schools with violated the Constitution by using a zip-code based admissions policy.
