Kansas City Star Seyz Jackson County Should Fight For DEI Quotas

Again and again . . . We notice that a great many Kansas City newsies are missing the point . . .

SUPPLIER DIVERSITY PROGRAMS HAVE SUFFERED RESOUNDING LEGAL SETBACKS & NOW CONFRONT A CONSERVATIVE SUPREME COURT!!!

As we've mentioned a few times before on this blog . . .

The Civil Rights ERA has now come to a conclusion and legal fights to preserve the old system seem like an expensive losing battle and wasted energy that would be put to better use finding an equitable way to award government contracts that's slightly less corrupt than the kind of graft that has ALWAYS surrounded this practice since pharaoh decided to build the pyramids.   

Here's a quick overview and a reference we wanted to quote for context . . . 

"Legal frameworks for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) are undergoing a major shift as a national wave of litigation increasingly strikes down race- and sex-conscious public contracting programs as unconstitutional. 

"Following the watershed U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting affirmative action in higher education, conservative legal groups and state attorneys general have successfully targeted government supplier diversity initiatives under the Equal Protection Clause. 

"Proving this trend, federal courts recently ruled Houston's long-standing minority contracting rules unconstitutional, while massive federal initiatives like the Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program and the Small Business Administration's (SBA) "social disadvantage" presumptions have been blocked. 

"Faced with these active legal liabilities, major municipalities like Kansas City have swiftly repealed their MWBE ordinances to transition toward race- and gender-neutral programs based strictly on local business size and owner net worth." 

Nevertheless . . .

Here's a bit of newspaper encouragement hoping that the courthouse picks a losing fight . . .  

"The idea of placing a moratorium on ensuring that minority- and women-owned businesses get a fair share of contracts in the county came up at a Jackson County Legislature meeting on Monday.

The general counsel raised the issue after the Missouri Attorney General, Catherine Hanaway, filed a federal lawsuit against Kansas City in July challenging the city’s minority and women business enterprise contracting programs. That lawsuit claims the city’s MBE and WBE contracting programs discriminate against white men. Which, of course, it does not. Ok, so maybe general counsel was trying to be preemptive and avoid any possibility that the county would run into a legal fight over its legislation. I argue that this policy — which in its original form is more than three decades old and provides protections for a population of people that has historically been underrepresented — is worth fighting for, especially at a time when the county has millions of dollars in construction contracts in the works."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

KC Star: Jackson County should quash any move to halt minority access to contracts