Mayor Ray Nagin - Genius or Moron? I'm not sure.

This is an old post from my now-defunct Myspace blog. I'm going to post some of the older postings in reverse chronological order to put a little meat on the bones of this puppy.

Originally posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061002/ap_on_re_us/nagin_minority_businesses

On October 2nd, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans signed an executive order that required firms seeking tax incentives and grants for Katrina reconstruction to use at least 50% local businesses and 35% women- or minority-owned businesses "whenever possible." Interestingly, in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a very similar plan in Richmond, Virginia, which had required all contractors doing business with the city to subcontract at least 30% of all work to minority-owned businesses. Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469 (1989).

I wonder if this gets litigated if the courts will make a distinction between Nagin's plan and Croson because Nagin's plan applies only to those firms that are seeking tax incentives and grants from the government. Law dorks will note that the Court is very good at splitting hairs when it comes to equal rights as long as cities or states are using the carrot and not the stick. The whole gay rights debacle involving military recruiters on campus, Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, was a good example. At issue there was whether law schools could give military recruiters less-than-full access to a gay student's file (or not let military recruiters come on campus at all) because the military's "Don't ask, Don't Tell" policy conflicted with the schools' anti-discrimination policies and First Amendment free speech rights (by "compelling" the universities to speak in a way they otherwise would not). The government threatened to withhold millions of dollars in aid if the schools did not comply. In part, the Supreme Court held that no one was really making the schools do anything; the schools just weren't going to get government money if they didn't comply. As my Con Law professor was fond of saying, "Yous pays your money and yous takes your chances." Similarly, I wonder if Nagin's plan will be found constitutional if for no other reason than the fact that it isn't an across-the-board affirmative action plan, but only applies to those seeking federal grants for reconstruction. Regardless, it seems awfully unfair to me to tell the lowest bidder—whatever genitalia they possess or skin color they wear—that they cannot do the work because they're not eligible for the money (and to complete the work without the grant would put them over cost). This is Mayor Nagin, however—not the brightest crayon in the box.