Frankfort, KY — In a critical win for equity in public contracting, the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky granted a coalition of minority- and women-owned businesses and trade organizations the right to intervene to defend the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE).
The coalition—the National Association of Minority Contractors, Women First National Legislative Committee, Airport Minority Advisory Council, Illinois Chapter of Women Construction Owners & Executives, Atlantic Meridian Contracting Corporation, and Upstate Steel, Inc.—represents businesses that depend on the DBE Program to compete on a level playing field for access to federal transportation contracts.
The DBE Program is designed to remedy the effects of historic and ongoing discrimination in public contracting by ensuring that businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals have a fair shot at federal transportation work.
The lawsuit, Mid-America Milling Co. v. DOT, was filed by groups seeking to eliminate race- and gender-conscious elements of the DBE Program. In September 2024, the court issued a preliminary injunction that restricted the use of DBE contract goals in states where the plaintiffs operate.
In January 2025, President Trump’s executive orders proposed to dismantle diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility-related programs across the federal government, provoking the coalition to seek formal participation in the litigation to defend their interests.
“Today’s decision helps ensure that the voices of minority- and women-owned businesses will be heard in a case that directly threatens their opportunity to participate fairly in federally funded transportation work,” said Brooke Menschel, Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward. “With this ruling, the court has recognized what’s at stake—not just for these businesses, but for the longstanding principles of redressing past discrimination in our economy.”
“Minority- and women-owned businesses have been burdened by discrimination for centuries. It is both legally right and morally necessary for the government and the private sector to take action to remedy that discrimination,” said Sarah von der Lippe, counsel for the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The participation in this case is essential to allowing minority- and women-owned businesses to fight for themselves and their communities, and we are pleased that the court will allow their voices to be heard.”
“This decision is an important step forward in the hearing of minority- and women-owned businesses who want to ensure that Congress’s laws creating and maintaining the longstanding ‘Disadvantaged Business Enterprise’ contracting program are preserved,” said Douglas L. McSwain of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. ”They will have the opportunity to demonstrate that the program is important and needed to help prevent ongoing discriminatory practices.”
The court’s decision affirms that the coalition has a direct and substantial interest in the case and cannot rely on the federal government to adequately defend the program, particularly as the administration has been showing a reversal in its litigation posture.
The case is Mid-America Milling Co. v. U.S. Department of Transportation, and the coalition is represented by Democracy Forward, the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund (MBELDEF), and Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs LLP.
Read the decision here.
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