(VitalNews.org) – A group of Republican attorneys general issued a warning on Thursday to Fortune 100 companies to cease using racial preferences in their hiring practices, contracts, and promotion decisions following the recent Supreme Court decision that colleges must stop using affirmative action in their admissions processes.
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti from Tennessee said in a press release that the Constitution and civil rights laws grant “every American the right to be free from racial discrimination.”
The GOP attorneys argue that the Supreme Court ruling in a case about college admissions “means that companies… cannot treat people differently” based on skin color, “no matter their motivation.” They also claim there are “many avenues” to assist “disadvantaged people” and communities of every race without “crude racial line-drawing.”
Some of the companies that received the letter, signed by 13 attorneys general, were Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola. They told these companies that the ruling should place all contractors and employers “on notice” that “racial quotas” and preferential employment based on race are illegal. They urged the Fortune 100 companies to “cease” these practices, which they called “unlawful,” and warned them that they would “be held accountable” if they refused.
Democrats are not pleased about the Supreme Court ruling, and some are even calling for term limits on justices now that the court is Republican-dominated for the first time in half a century. The decision on affirmative action overturned cases regarding racial quotas going back over 45 years.
Television pundit and activist Al Sharpton described the ruling as “sticking a dagger” in the backs of black Americans. He argues that race should be considered “given the racial history” of the U.S. that he believes disenfranchised current generations. He noted that 160 years ago “it was against the law” for black Americans “to even read and write.” Sharpton called the decision a “tremendous setback” that should be “resisted by every corner.”
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