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Color-Coded Standing, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Remarkably, the Supreme Court has held that whites who wish to challenge the constitutionality of affirmative action plans have standing to do so. In Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors v. City of Jacksonville the Supreme Court upheld the standing of non-minority construction contractors to challenge a minority setaside program under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. What is remarkable is not that the result reached in the case was wrong, but that the Court was able to reach that result given its most recent standing precedents. In previous Terms, the Supreme Court had taken …