The American Alliance For Equal Rights (AAER) filed a lawsuit in an Atlanta district court on Wednesday against a venture capital firm running a grant program that only gives to black women.
The AAER cited the recent Supreme Court case Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard and argued that Fearless Fund Management operates an unlawful, “racially-discriminatory program”, according to the lawsuit. Fearless Fund awards $20,000 grants quarterly to small businesses founded by black women through its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, with the current entry period running from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, according to the contest page. (RELATED: Biden Regulator Poised To Shove Left-Wing Priorities Into The Workplace)
“Under the terms of the grant program, official eligibility for the contest depends on an applicant’s race with only black females being eligible to participate in the process,” according to a press release from the AAER sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The lawsuit requests the federal court enter a judgment against Fearless Fund for operating this racially discriminatory contract and issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction barring them from closing the fourth application period, selecting grant recipients, or enforcing its racially discriminatory eligibility criteria for the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest.”
The AAER was founded by Edward Blum, who was a key figure in the recent Supreme Court decision that ended race-based admissions practices at colleges and universities, according to Axios.
U.S. Supreme Court Police hand out tickets to members of the public to attend oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on October 31, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Supreme Court ruled in June against race-based admissions for colleges and universities in a pair of cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The court ruled that race-based admissions practices violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Fearless Fund raised around $16 million for its second fund, which was started in 2022, according to an SEC filing.
“Plaintiff, American Alliance of Equal Rights, has members who are being excluded from the program because they are the wrong race,” the lawsuit says. “It’s entitled to relief.”
Fearless Fund Management did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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