by Jock Yellott
As a follow-up to “US Constitution Calling Jason Miyares,” published here January 15, 2024: the Virginia Legislature now is considering a bill, HR 1404, mandating “Disadvantaged Business Enterprise” affirmative action in all state government contracting. It’s before the House Committee on Rules.
H.R. 1404 presumes people are “disadvantaged” based on their origins; their group identity. Which the US Supreme Court declared unconstitutional 30 years ago in the Adarand Constructors case. And the Supreme Court confirmed its unconstitutionality last June in Students for Fair Admissions. The bill mirrors the federal Small Business Administration list of groups presumed disadvantaged, always and everywhere, that a federal district court declared unconstitutional last July (the Biden administration’s SBA is now trying to wiggle out from under that ruling).
You can do something: write a delegate on the House Rules Committee. Click on the names below:
Scott, D.L(Chair),Watts, Ward, Sickles, Herring, Carr, Torian, Simon, Hayes, Sullivan, Tran, Kilgore, Austin, Webert, O’Quinn, Batten
They have a lot to read; no need to write an essay. Just say the affirmative action in H.R. 1404 is unconstitutional on its face. Kill it in committee.
Instead of putting a thumb on the scale, giving the advantage of being presumed disadvantaged to those who can claim ancestry from Sri Lanka. Or “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Africa.” Which is all of us. Or of Hispanic origins. Attorney General Jason Miyares is of Hispanic origins. Ask him what he thinks about affirmative action.
Let’s hope enough folks on that committee care about equality under the law.
Jock Yellott is an attorney in Charlottesville and an occasional contributor to Bacon’s Rebellion.
