U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a Trump appointee, ruled that the Minority Business Development Agency must assist everyone, regardless of the applicant’s race.
As CNN reported, the lawsuit was filed by a group of white plaintiffs, and Pittman’s ruling dismantled the agency’s function since it was first introduced by Richard Nixon in 1969. Pittman wrote that, due to his decision, the agency is barred from “considering or using an applicant’s race or ethnicity in determining whether they can receive” assistance from the agency’s centers.
forwp-incontent-custom-banner ampforwp-incontent-ad1">Pittman also referred to historically disadvantaged ethnic groups as a “magic list” in his ruling. “Plaintiffs all encountered the same obstacle when they sought MBDA programming. Because they aren’t on the Agency’s magic list, the Agency presumes they aren’t disadvantaged.”
The MDMA has consistently been one of the few organizations focused on attempting to level the playing field for minority-owned businesses since its introduction in 1969.
Conservatives have been using Texas’s conservative federal courts and judges because they
tend to issue rulings that align with their political goals. Pittman, in particular, has been instrumental as he has issued several controversial rulings, notably a verdict on President Biden’s student loan relief policy that stated, “The program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated.”Pittman’s ruling in this case also echoes the Supreme Court verdict on Affirmative action. He used some of the same arguments as Justice Clarence Thomas, writing that the use of race for race’s sake that he saw in the agency was unconstitutional.
“Like Harvard’s program in SFFA, the MBDA sees ‘an inherent benefit in race qua race – race for race’s sake,'” Pittman wrote. “Such disregard for the necessity of race or for race-neutral alternatives is unconstitutional.”
The Justice Department attorneys pushed back against some of the claims from the plaintiffs, who sued after being denied services from the MBDA, saying in 2023 court documents, “Any member of a group not presumed socially or economically disadvantaged may petition for a presumption of disadvantage, regardless of race.”
The attorneys continued, “And while the application process may vary for individuals not included in the MBDA presumptions, there is a pathway for them to access the services of the MBDA Business Centers through an assertion of individual social or economic disadvantage.”