A federal judge has ruled Houston’s minority-owned business contracting program unconstitutional and blocked the city from “using racial preferences” in awarding public contracts as affirmative action programs come under fire nationwide.
A white couple from Spring sued the city in 2023, alleging their lawn care business, Landscape Consultants of Texas, Inc., could not “compete on an equal footing with other businesses” as they were ineligible for certification in the city’s longstanding program designed to even the playing field for minorities, women and small businesses.
Houston since 1984 has set goals to give certain percentages of various types of city contracts to certified small businesses and those owned by women and minorities.
The city’s Office of Business Opportunity also runs programs to help businesses owned by veterans, those with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
In a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge David Hittner said the program was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Houston awarded $2.5 billion in construction, professional services, and other goods and services contracts in its 2025 fiscal year, $579 million of which went to certified minority, women, and small businesses across more than 1,600 separate contracts.
Hispanic-owned businesses received 34% of that $579 million in contracts, followed by Asian-owned businesses 22%, firms owned by white women at 17% and Black-owned firms at 14%.
Carol Guess, current chair of the Texas Association of African-American Chambers of Commerce and former president of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, said it appeared as though the judge had unjustly applied a narrow ruling the U.S. Supreme Court made in relation to racial preference in college applications to a local program.
Guess called the ruling a “huge blow” to Black-owned businesses across the state, especially those in Houston where city leaders weren’t yet meeting contracting goals. She worried about the possibility of other municipalities complying with the ruling and walking back their MWBE programs to avoid costly court battles.
“This court has opened the door for other courts to expand the application of (the Harvard ruling),” Guess said. “They made a choice to do that. And now the door is open for many other municipalities, for their MWBE programs to be enjoined.”
Arturo Michel, the city’s lead attorney, said his team is evaluating a potential appeal to the court’s decision, and said the ruling would not impact other areas of the Office of Business Opportunity.
This program has existed for over 40 years, but now that we have a corrupt Supreme Court, nothing matters. Using the 14th Amendment, one of the pillars of the Reconstruction, as the pretext for this is grotesque. The same chuckleheads who filed here are also suing Harris County, so I do unfortunately expect dominoes to fall. All over a program that ultimately directs less than 25% of the contracting funds to these firms, of which about one in six are owned by white women. It’s ridiculous, and it’s hard to imagine a successful appeal. I wish I had something constructive to say about this but I don’t. Houston Public Media has more.