Houston skyline
HOUSTON - An area landscaping business has won a permanent court order striking down the City of Houston’s race-based contracting requirements.
On July 28, a federal court ruled in favor of Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management, both owned by Jerry and Theresa Thompson, permanently barring Houston and the Midtown Management District from enforcing racial preferences in awarding public contracts.
Represented by Pacific Legal Foundation at no charge, the Thompsons filed the lawsuit in 2023, arguing the policy violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment.
The Thompsons maintain that they have seen opportunities for contracts dry up in recent years, even where their business is the lowest, most-qualified bidder because Houston’s Minority Business Enterprise program requires non-minority-owned businesses to give away a portion of contracts’ value to MBE subcontractors.
“Equal protection means equal protection for everyone, not preferential treatment for some,” said Erin Wilcox, a senior attorney at PLF. “The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees every business owner the same shot at a government contract, regardless of race. This is a victory not just for the Thompsons, but for every American who believes government contracts should be won on merit.”
Landscape Consultants and Metropolitan, family-owned companies that maintain parks, playgrounds, and other government properties, have relied on Houston-area government contracts for decades, according to PLF.
Houston’s ordinance required non-minority-owned firms like the Tompsons’ to subcontract a fixed share of every contract — as much as 19 percent — to minority-owned businesses, while minority-owned firms faced no such requirement.
In its opinion, the court found that Houston failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s framework in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard by failing to identify “any specific instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute” that the program was attempting to remedy.
Accordingly, Houston had not shown its racial classifications satisfied the most demanding standard of constitutional review. The court ruled Landscape Consultants and Metropolitan had “shown actual success on the merits” of their Equal Protection claim.
The case was filed in the Southern District of Texas.
