Florida Just Pulled the Plug on Dozens of Unconstitutional Race Quota Programs

Sometimes the most radical act is enforcing the Constitution as written.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just did exactly that. In a legal opinion released Monday, he identified dozens of state programs that have been quietly demanding racial preferences for years. Programs embedded in Florida law, operating in plain sight, requiring discrimination based on skin color. And he’s not mincing words about it.

“Racial discrimination is wrong. It is also unconstitutional,” Uthmeier wrote. You’d think that would be obvious by now, but here we are.

The appendix to his opinion reads like a scavenger hunt through state bureaucracy. There are programs forcing doctor’s offices to hire and retain minority doctors based on race. There’s a mandate requiring the state Commerce Department to promote minority businesses. There’s even a law demanding that state agencies implement “programs of affirmative and positive action” while posting demographic scorecards to prove they’re hiring enough non-white people.

It’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder how we got here. How did well-meaning intentions morph into legally mandated racism?

When Good Intentions Pave Roads to Bad Places

Here’s what nobody wants to say out loud. These programs were sold as remedies for past wrongs. Noble goals, right? But somewhere along the way, remedy became routine. Temporary became permanent. And equality of opportunity got swapped out for enforced equality of outcome.

The attorney general isn’t buying it anymore. “These laws do not further a compelling governmental interest,” he wrote, “because none of these laws identifies any of the limited, recognized constitutional justifications for race-based classifications.”

Translation? You can’t just wave your hands and say “diversity” or “equity” and expect constitutional scrutiny to disappear. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause doesn’t care about your good intentions. It cares about equal treatment under the law.

One program Uthmeier flagged requires a specific number of construction, architectural, commodity, and contractual services be awarded to blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and women. Quotas, plain and simple. “Any Florida law that seeks to compel race-based discriminatory provisions through government contracting is unconstitutional,” he said.

You know what’s interesting? These racial quotas have been sitting in Florida’s legal code for years. Everybody knew they were there. But it took the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to give state officials the backbone to actually do something about it.

That Harvard case was a watershed moment. The court finally said what conservatives have been arguing for decades: you can’t discriminate to fight discrimination. You can’t make things equal by treating people unequally. And you certainly can’t use race as a permanent factor in decision-making just because it feels progressive.

The Ripple Effect Nobody Saw Coming

The Harvard ruling has sent shockwaves through every level of government. Federal agencies are scrambling. State legislatures are sweating. And attorneys general like Uthmeier are finally asking the question that should’ve been asked years ago: why are we still doing this?

Florida’s programs didn’t just violate federal law. They violated Florida’s own constitution. That’s the part that stings. These weren’t imposed by Washington bureaucrats. These were homegrown mandates, created by Floridians, enforced by Floridians, and defended by nobody now that someone’s actually read the Constitution.

Uthmeier’s office won’t defend or enforce these discriminatory provisions anymore. That’s not a political statement. That’s a legal obligation.

But let’s be honest about what happens next. Critics will say this is an attack on minorities. They’ll claim Florida is rolling back progress. They’ll trot out statistics about disparities and argue that without these programs, opportunity will vanish for people of color.

That argument insults everyone involved. It assumes minorities can’t compete without government thumbs on the scale. It assumes that merit and excellence are somehow incompatible with diversity. And it ignores the basic truth that you can’t build a colorblind society by obsessing over color.

Individual liberty means something. It means you get judged on your skills, your character, your work ethic. Not your melanin count. Limited government means the state doesn’t get to engineer social outcomes by treating citizens differently based on immutable characteristics.

These aren’t abstract principles. They’re the foundation of everything conservatives believe about human dignity and equal justice.

Florida isn’t abandoning opportunity. It’s defending it. Real opportunity doesn’t come with asterisks or demographic requirements. It comes from a level playing field where everyone plays by the same rules.

Uthmeier’s opinion is blunt because the issue is simple. Racial discrimination is wrong when it hurts minorities. It’s also wrong when it hurts anyone else. The Constitution doesn’t stutter on this point. Neither should we.

The programs Florida just identified aren’t relics from the 1960s. They’re active, current, and operating right now. Until Monday, they were the law. Now they’re unconstitutional mandates waiting to be scrapped.

That’s not regression. That’s progress. And it’s about time.

American Conservatives