The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) secured a significant victory: a court order clarifying and significantly expanding the scope of a preliminary injunction halting the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. The ruling now applies nationwide to any state in which WILL’s clients do business.  

In September, the Court ordered the United States Department of Transportation to stop using race and gender preferences that discriminate against Mid-America Milling Company (MAMCO) and Bagshaw Trucking. WILL understood the Court’s ruling to apply to its clients in every state in which WILL’s clients do business. Yet the federal government refused to fully comply with the injunction, seeking instead to arbitrarily limit the ruling to the states of Kentucky and Indiana. 

The Court’s new order clarifies that the federal government was wrong, and the discriminatory preferences are unconstitutional wherever WILL’s clients bid on highway projects. In practice, many other firms stand to gain from this ruling, since the order applies to all federally funded projects that MAMCO and Bagshaw bid on. 

The Quotes: WILL Associate Counsel, Cara Tolliver, stated, “We are thrilled that the federal judge confirmed our understanding of its ruling to give our clients the relief they deserve and again blocked the federal government from unlawfully discriminating against our clients. In practice, the door to government contracting will open not only for our clients, but also for other firms. The DBE program’s days of sanctioning racial and gender discrimination are dwindling.” 

About WILL: The effort to overturn this program is through WILL’s Equality Under the Law Project, which has targeted various programs within Biden’s Racial Equity Agenda. WILL has had recent success under this initiative suing the Biden-Harris Administration over its “Minority Business Development Agency,” which was designed to help Americans of some races, but not other races. This victory similarly targeted President Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Act for violations of the Equal Protection Doctrine.  

More about WILL’s Equality Under the Law Project can be found here: DefendEquality.org. 

Read more: 

• Court Order, 10.31.24