On Tuesday, in Nuziard v. Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) federal district court judge Mark T. Pittman issued an injunction against the MBDA's Business Center Program. These Centers may give assistance only to businesses owned by socially or economically disadvantaged individuals. A Business owned by a "Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Puerto-Rican, Eskimo, Hasidic Jew, Asian Indian, or a Spanish-speaking American," is presumptively considered to be owned by a socially or economically disadvantaged individual. According to the opinion, and unlike similar federal programs, no individual outside of the designated groups can be eligible, no matter how socially or economically disadvantaged.
Most interesting from my perspective, Judge Pittman focused on the arbitrariness of the relevant classifications:
[T]he Program is not narrowly tailored because it is underinclusive and overinclusive in its use of racial and ethnic classification… It is underinclusive because it arbitrarily excludes many minorityowned business owners—such as those from the Middle East, North Africa, and North Asia. For example, it excludes those who trace their ancestry to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Libya. But it includes those from China, Japan, Pakistan, and India. The Program is also underinclusive because it excludes every minority business owner who owns less than 51% of their business.
