(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin taxpayer group filed a lawsuit over race-based discrimination in a $250 million supplier program operated by the Wisconsin Department of Administration.
The program spends $250 million annually buying supplies but white, Middle Eastern and most Asian small business owners are not eligible, according to the lawsuit from Citizens Defending Liberty filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
The lawsuit comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled that the state could not give out race-based college scholarships, and WILL Managing Vice President Dan Lennington said that another lawsuit will be filed later in July.
“Governor Evers doles out government contracts to businesses based on race,” Lennington said in a statement. “He’s spent nearly $1.5 billion on this massive DEI scheme, all on the taxpayers’ dime. This has to end now.”
The program awards a 5% bid preference to some minority-owned businesses in everything from engineering and architectural services to building construction, state highway construction and general procurement.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the college grant program violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
