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Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit against Kansas City, alleging programs that help businesses owned by women and racial minorities are discriminatory toward white people and men.
The federal lawsuit alleges that the city’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise program runs afoul of equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. Hanaway, a Republican, wants a federal judge to declare the programs unlawful and permanently force Kansas City from considering race and sex when awarding contracts to third-party businesses.
“Kansas Citians deserve a system based on fairness, merit, and equal treatment, not one that sorts people and spends taxpayer dollars based on race or sex,” Hanaway said in a statement. “The city’s unlawful quotas violate the core promise of equal protection under the law, shut out qualified businesses, and deny hardworking Missourians the chance to compete on a level playing field.”
Jackson Overstreet, a Kansas City spokesperson, declined to comment on the pending litigation, but Mayor Quinton Lucas responded to the lawsuit in a statement.
“I had much hope that Missouri finally had an Attorney General committed to fighting human trafficking, eliminating elder abuse, and protecting Missouri’s seniors from fraudsters. Unfortunately, we still do not, as our new Attorney General takes part in yet another culture war issue,” Lucas said.
“Our lawyers will handle it. The people of Missouri and Kansas City will lose, as talented young lawyers in her office spend their time on another political stunt rather than the safety of Missourians,” Lucas said.
Lawsuit attacks diversity efforts
The lawsuit comes amid a broader crackdown on diversity initiatives nationwide as conservatives argue similar programs treat white people unfairly. It also marks another clash between Republicans in Jefferson City and policies enacted in Democratic-leaning Kansas City.
Kansas City has had some form of the program for three decades. Under its most recent iteration, approved in 2016, the city has a goal of awarding 14.7% of its contracting dollars to companies owned by racial minorities and 14.4% of its contracting dollars to women-owned businesses.
No single company can qualify as both women-owned and minority-owned, and the businesses must have a presence in Kansas City.
The city must justify the program with a “disparity study,” which examines whether there are certain racial, ethnic or gender groups that are underrepresented in the contracts Kansas City awards to third-party businesses. Hanaway was underwhelmed by the evidence provided in the latest two studies, the lawsuit says.
“It did not, for example, identify specific instances of intentional race or sex-based discrimination in Kansas City public contracting,” the lawsuit says about a 2016 disparity study. “Nor did it provide evidence of Kansas City’s active participation in race- or sex-based discrimination in the award of city contracts.”
A later disparity study, which was presented to the Kansas City City Council last month, recommends Kansas City adopt a race and gender-neutral measure focusing on small businesses.
“This data made clear that Kansas City’s ‘current race- and gender-conscious program’ cannot continue because there is not a factual basis supporting continued discrimination based on race and sex,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit is brought on behalf of Charles Cacioppo, Jr., who owns Industrial Salvage & Wrecking Co. Inc. in Kansas City. Though the lawsuit said that Cacioppo’s company has won bids for competitive contracts, it wants “to bid for contracts in a system where Kansas City does not consider race or sex.
The lawsuit repeatedly references Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court decision that notably gutted the Voting Rights Act. The decision requires that any race-based measures serve a “compelling state interest,” be as narrowly targeted as possible and include a sunset provision.
Hanaway names the city, City Manager Mario Vasquez and Jaime Guillen, director of the Department of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, as defendants in the lawsuit.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report.
