Flashcards Studio

City A awards contracts for public park construction. After a consultant reported that minority-owned firms had received only five percent of city park contracts over the past decade, the city adopted two ordinances. The first requires that at least 30 percent of every park-construction contract be subcontracted to firms owned by members of specified racial minority groups. The second gives a bidding preference to firms located in five low-income zip codes. The zip-code preference was proposed after several council members stated that the city should "stop sending park money to contractors from the suburbs," but there is also evidence that the chosen zip codes are overwhelmingly populated by racial minorities.
A nonminority contractor located outside the preferred zip codes challenges both ordinances under the Equal Protection Clause. The city argues that both ordinances remedy past inequity and promote local economic development.
Analyze the equal protection issues raised by the race set-aside and the zip-code preference.