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SDB Preference Constitutional

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 08.02.04

In Rothe Dev. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Def. (W.D. Tex. July 2, 2004), the district court found that, although the initial enactments of a small disadvantaged business preference in DOD procurements were unconstitutional, in the 2003 version Congress sufficiently heeded the Supreme Court's affirmative action decisions in the past few years and supplied a "strong basis in the evidence" of racial discrimination to support the reenactment of the preference and withstand a facial challenge. The court brushed aside the evidence that the Asian-Americans benefited by the preference in the particular procurement were financially well off, noting that such evidence is only relevant to an administrative challenge to the SDB designation, not a constitutional challenge.

Insights

Client Alert | 10 min read | 04.22.26

The EU Industrial Accelerator Act Proposal’s Significance for the Automotive Industry

On March 4, 2026, the European Commission proposed the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), a draft regulation that aims to reverse the decline of the EU’s manufacturing sector while supporting the adoption of cleaner technologies. This client alert is the third in a three-part series dedicated to the IAA. In our first alert, we provided an overview of the draft regulation. In a second alert, we took a closer look at the new foreign direct investment (FDI) review framework that the IAA would establish for certain strategic sectors. In this third and final instalment of the series, we focus on the implications of the proposal for the automotive industry....