Federal appeals court blocks Fearless Fund from issuing grants to only Black women

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has blocked a Black-owned venture capitalist firm from awarding grants exclusively to Black women entrepreneurs.

In an opinion released Monday, the judges ruled that the Fearless Fund’s Fearless Strivers Grant Contest is “substantially likely to violate” the provisions of Title 42 of the US Code, which ensures equal rights under the law and prohibits the use of race when awarding and enforcing contracts.

In the ruling, the appellate court ordered a federal court in Georgia to enter a preliminary injunction blocking the fund from closing its grant application process while the case continues to be litigated.

It also states that the fund’s program is unlikely to be protected by the First Amendment.

The court’s decision marks a victory for anti-affirmative action legal strategist Edward Blum, who filed a lawsuit last August against the fund on behalf of his group American Alliance for Equal Rights.

AAER attorneys have argued that their members, who were unnamed in the lawsuit, were excluded from the grant program because they weren’t Black and that they faced “additional harm” from the illegal act of racial discrimination, CNN previously reported.

Continue reading at CNN to learn how Blum responded.

Affirmative action policies helped Black Americans who suffered under centuries of slavery and oppression.

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