Home / Full timeline / The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, rules a program in Richmond, Virginia, which required contractors in city construction projects to set aside at least 30 percent of the value of the project for companies at least half-minority owned, as unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, rules a program in Richmond, Virginia, which required contractors in city construction projects to set aside at least 30 percent of the value of the project for companies at least half-minority owned, as unconstitutional.
1989 (Jan 23)
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled unconstitutional a program in Richmond, Virginia, which required contractors in city construction projects to set aside at least 30 percent of the value of the project for companies at least half-minority owned. The high Court said the quota was "an unlawful form of reverse discrimination." Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said local and state government could no longer rest on the "amorphous claim" that quotas were necessary remedies for past racial discrimination, adding “it is sheer speculation" to claim that if past discrimination had not occurred, there would be more minority firms. Justice O'Connor further commented: "The dearth of minority firms might have a number of explanations. For example, Whites and Blacks may simply make different 'entrepreneurial choices.'" In any event, she wrote, if quotas were not "realistically tied to any injury suffered by anyone," they were not permitted by the equal protection clause of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. Justice O'Connor concluded that it was "disingenuous” to include “Spanish-speaking, Oriental, Indian, Eskimo or Aleut persons" in the affirmative action program, because no member of that "random inclusion of racial groups” had ever suffered from discrimination in Richmond. The City of Richmond v. J. A. Coson Co. case stemmed from a 1983 ordinance that required the 30 percent "set asides." At the time, although 60 percent of the population of Richmond was Black, minority-owned business had received less than 0.6 percent of the $25 million awarded in city contracts over the preceding five years. The high Court's ruling was one of the most far-reaching attacks on the notion of affirmative action since the Regents of University of California v. Allan Bakke decision in 1978.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.