Fullilove v. Klutznick
United States Supreme Court
448 U.S. 448 (1980)
In 1977, Congress passed a statute requiring state and local governments receiving federal building-project funds to direct at least 10 percent of those funds to minority business enterprises (MBEs), subject to possible administrative waivers, based on congressional findings, including government reports and studies, that MBEs had faced discrimination in public contracting. The statute was challenged as facially unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
Whether a federal affirmative-action statute conditioning receipt of federal funds on state and local governments directing a portion of those funds to minority business enterprises is facially unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.