Originally published July 13, 2023 4:00 pm PDT
In a joint letter to every Fortune 100 CEO, twelve Republican attorneys general from Kansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia have declared their opposition to race-based quotas or preferences in hiring and contracting practices.
The letter quotes several Supreme Court rulings to underline their argument, stating definitively, “racial discrimination under the guise of affirmative action must end: ‘Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.'”
The letter also argued that every racial preference “necessarily imposes an equivalent harm on individuals outside of the preferred racial groups, solely on the basis of their skin color. It is not even theoretically possible to ‘help’ a certain racial group without causing harm to members of other racial groups.”
The attorneys general critiqued the defense of racial hiring under the guise of seeking diversity, describing such practices as inevitably quota-driven.
“For all the talk of holistic and contextual judgments, the racial preferences at issue here in fact operate like clockwork,” they write, adding that playing this “numbers game” is “patently unconstitutional.”
They applied these principles to the context of employment and contracting, highlighting that Title VII and other laws restricting race-based discrimination should be interpreted consistently.
“These principles apply equally to Title VII and other laws restricting race-based discrimination in employment and contracting,” they write.
In closing, the attorneys general called on companies to “cease any unlawful race-based quotas or preferences your company has adopted for its employment and contracting practices.”
They concluded with a stern warning: “If you choose not to do so, know that you will be held accountable—sooner rather than later—for your decision to continue treating people differently because of the color of their skin.”
Read the full letter below:
