Coca-Cola receives warning over its attempt to impose racial quotas

 Power Line Blog  . . . "Coca Cola’s stated goal is that the legal teams it hires “be representative of the population it serves,” and the policy’s minimum racial quotas therefore roughly track the racial distribution of the American population at large, rather than the labor market for attorneys. Thus, for example, the letter requires that at least 15% of time be billed by black attorneys. Blacks make up approximately 13.4% of the U.S. population, but only 5.9% of attorneys. . . .

"In adopting this new policy, Coke appears to be following the view of “anti-racist” activist Ibram X. Kendi that justice requires proportional representation in all spheres of life and that the “only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. . . .And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

"Such a policy of discrimination is illegal. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (codified at 42 U.S.C. 1981), federal law has prohibited all forms of racial discrimination in private contracting. As the late Justice Ginsburg noted just last year, Section 1981 is a “‘sweeping’ law designed to ‘break down all discrimination between black men and white men’ regarding ‘basic civil rights'” Comcast Corp. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Afr. Am.-Owned Media, 140 S.Ct. 1009, 1020 (2020) (Ginsburg, J. concurring) (quoting Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 432 (1968) (emphasis in original). And decades of case law have held that — no matter how well intentioned — policies that seek to impose permanent racial balancing are prohibited."

The abrupt departure of Bradley Gayton after less than a year as General Counsel suggests that Coca-Cola is already aware that its racial quota requirements on outside firms are indefensible. Indeed, if press reports are accurate, Coca-Cola has already paused the policy, though with the intention of retaining at least some of its provisions. This pause is a welcome development, but more is needed. Racial discrimination should have no place in private contracting, and Coca-Cola should act swiftly to publicly undo this destructive legacy of Mr. Gayton’s tenure.