A US federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a Houston, Texas, city program establishing racial goals for public contracts violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, striking down the policy in one of the first rulings to extend a Supreme Court landmark 2023 affirmative action holding beyond the context of college admissions.

Houston’s Minority, Women, and Small Business Enterprise Program (MWSBE) is a municipal contracting initiative created in 1984. The program sets quantified goals for the share of city contracts awarded to minority-owned, women-owned, and small businesses. A white couple who own two landscaping companies filed a lawsuit against the city in 2023, alleging that their businesses could not “compete on an equal footing” in light of the MWSBE program.

The US District Court for the Southern District of Texas held that under the Supreme Court’s 2023 precedent in SFFA v. Harvard, a government’s race-conscious policy can only be upheld following evidence that demonstrates the government has considered race in order to remedy a specific, past discrimination its related practices. The opinion states:

Because Houston has failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s framework in Harvard by failing to identify any specific instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute, and because Houston has not proven that the racial classifications in its public contracting programs satisfy the demanding requirements of strict scrutiny generally, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have shown actual success on the merits with respect to Plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim against Houston’s Minority, Women, and Small Business Enterprise Program

The court rejected the city’s argument that the 2023 Harvard ruling only applied to higher education, pointing to the Supreme Court’s April holding in Louisiana v. Callais, reasoning that the Supreme Court had further applied the Harvard logic towards interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.

Tuesday’s ruling permanently blocks the race-based components of the MWSBE program. However, Houston may continue directing contracts towards small businesses and women-owned businesses. In a statement, Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel said the city will comply with the court’s ruling regarding existing and recently awarded contracts through the pendency of any potential appeal.