In a first of its kind ruling, a federal judge on Tuesday declared that the City of Houston's women's, minorities', and small businesses specialty contract programs are unconstitutional.
Judge David Hittner ruled on the case called Landscape Consultants of Texas Inc. v. Harris County, Texas, et al, and declared that Houston's and Midtown Management District's programs that require a percentage of Harris County contracts go to businesses owned by women or minorities are unconstitutional because they violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
"The Constitution guarantees equal treatment under the law, including when governments award public contracts," said Pacific Legal Foundation Director of Equality and Opportunity Litigation Joshua Thompson.
"This ruling vindicates our color-blind Constitution and reaffirms that public contracts should be awarded based on merit, not race."
And "Judge Hittner acknowledged that this is a case of 'first impression,' meaning this is the first case of its kind," Pacific Legal attorney Erin Wilcox told Newsradio 740 KTRH exclusively.
"Ever since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Harvard case, which had to do with college admissions, was not limited to college admissions, but it really set the standard for the really high bar that applies any time a law treats people differently based on race or ethnicity, so [Judge Hittner] applied that precedent to public contracting programs for the first time and found that Houston fell short of that requirement," Ms. Wilcox said.
The lawsuit was brought by "two family-owned landscaping companies that have been providing landscaping services to various municipalities around the Houston area for about 20 years," she adds.
It's now up to the city of Houston to decide whether to appeal the federal judge's ruling.