A California-based civil rights group sued Alameda County July 25 for policies that allegedly grant racial preferences in government contracting.
Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and two individual co-plaintiffs, represented by the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, filed the lawsuit in the Superior Court challenging two Alameda County public contracting programs that impose race-based preferences for minority-owned enterprises (pdf).
“Racial quotas in public contracting, just as racial quotas elsewhere, are wrong and unconstitutional,” Wen Fa, senior attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a July 25 statement. “The government should not be depriving opportunities for small businesses engaged in public contracting—and the Alameda County public contracting programs are particularly pernicious because they deprive opportunities based on race.”…