Federal District Court Enjoins U.S. Small Business Administration from Using Race-Based Rebuttable Presumption Under 8(a) Program
Government Contracts attorneys Robert Tompkins, Leila George-Wheeler, Kelsey Hayes and Hillary Freund co-authored an article for Pratt's Government Contracting Law Report analyzing a federal court's ruling that the federal government's use of a "rebuttable presumption" of social disadvantage for qualification for the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) program is unconstitutional. In Ultima Servs. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee determined that using presumption of social disadvantage specifically violates the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. In this article, the authors provide background on the 8(a) program, break down the court's reasoning and explain the decision's implications.