Revised City of South Bend Disparity Study Report

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City of South Bend Disparity Study 2020 ownership. These analyses contributed to the successful defense of Chicago's construction program. As explained by the Tenth Circuit, this type of evidence demonstrates the existence of two kinds of discriminatory barriers to minority subcontracting enterprises, both of which show a strong link between racial disparities in the federal government's disbursements of public funds for construction contracts and the channeling of those funds due to private discrimination. The first discriminatory barriers are to the formation of qualified minority subcontracting enterprises due to private discrimination, precluding from the outset competition for public construction contracts by minority enterprises. The second discriminatory barriers are to fair competition between minority and non -minority subcontracting enterprises, again due to private discrimination, precluding existing minority firms from effectively competing for public construction contracts. The government also presents further evidence in the form of local disparity studies of minority subcontracting and studies of local subcontracting markets after the removal of affirmative action programs.... The government's evidence is particularly striking in the area of the race -based denial of access to capital, without which the formation of minority subcontracting enterprises is stymied. 56 Business discrimination studies and lending formation studies are relevant and probative because they show a strong link between the disbursement of public funds and the channeling of those funds due to private discrimination. "Evi- dence that private discrimination results in barriers to business formation is relevant because it demonstrates that M/WBEs are precluded at the outset from competing for public construction contracts. Evidence of barriers to fair competition is also relevant because it again demonstrates that existing M/ WKS are precluded from competing for public contracts."57 Despite the con- tentions of plaintiffs that possibly dozens of factors might influence the ability of any individual to succeed in business, the courts have rejected such impossi- ble tests and held that business formation studies are not flawed because they cannot control for subjective descriptions such as "quality of education," "cul- ture" and "religion." For example, in unanimously upholding the DBE Program for federal -aid trans- portation contracts, the courts agree that disparities between the earnings of minority-owned firms and similarly situated non minority-owned firms and the 56. Adarand VII, 228 F.3d 1147,1168-69 (10th Or. 2000), cert. granted then dismissed as improvidently granted, 532 U.S. 941, 534 U.S. 103 (2001). 57. Id. © 2020 Colette Holt & Associates, All Rights Reserved. 33