Attorney Ben Crump, Fearless Fund partners Arian Simone, Ayana Parsons, lead counsel Mylan Denerstein and co-counsel Alphonso David pose for a photo at the end of a press conference in New York, the United States, on August 10, 2023.
Eduardo Muñoz | Reuters
A divided U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that venture capital fund Fearless Fund cannot resume funding businesses owned by black women, backing anti-affirmative action groups suing over the program.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the organization is likely to succeed in its discrimination lawsuit, reverse The judge decided to allow the plan to continue while the case progresses.
The ruling is a victory for Edward Blum, the conservative activist who successfully challenged race-conscious college admissions policies in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bloom’s American Alliance for Equal Rights claimed last year that Fearless Fund violated a 19th-century federal law prohibiting racial bias in private contracts.
The lawsuit targets the Fearless Fund program, which provides $20,000 grants and other resources to black women who own small businesses to grow their businesses.
According to Fearless Fund, Black women-owned businesses will receive less than 1% of the $288 billion in funding from venture capital firms through 2022.
An 11th Circuit panel led by Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, concluded that the Fearless Fund’s plan did not comply with the speech protections of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Newsom’s order was joined by Robert Luck, another Trump appointee. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, an Obama-era appointee, dissented, accusing the plaintiffs of pretending to be harmed by the program. The funding plans have been put on hold following an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal.
Attorneys for the Fearless Foundation said in a statement that Monday’s ruling contradicts more than 150 years of civil rights law. They said the decision “is not the final outcome of this case.”
The Fearless Foundation argued to the court in January that it has a constitutional right to express black women’s belief in the economic importance of their philanthropy.
Bloom said in a statement Monday that federal “civil rights laws do not allow racial discrimination because some groups are overrepresented and others are underrepresented in various activities.”
About The Author
