Five Asheville residents are suing the city because they want an opportunity to serve their community without regards to their race and skin color, says attorney Andrew Quinio of Pacific Legal Foundation, the law firm representing the residents.
"The City of Asheville has a commission called the Human Relations Commission that these five citizens, these plaintiffs want to serve on," he explains. "But they are at a disadvantage because Asheville ordinance gives preferential treatment, gives an advantage to applicants of a certain race, specifically minority applicants."
Because the five applicants are white, Quinio says they are "unconstitutionally disadvantaged."
In addition to the lawsuit, Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction asking the court to – by October 10th – stop the city from making any appointments to the commission under the race-based criteria.
"To be clear, we're not asking the court to make the city dissolve the board or not appoint anyone," says Quinio. "It's just 'don't use the criteria for now until this case is resolved.' We're hoping that takes effect on or before October 10, which is the next city council meeting when they will be making appointments to this commission."
He adds that a lot of cities across the country have something like Asheville's Human Relations Commission; by law, they have the ability to set membership requirements, even by race.
"Now, they should not do that; they cannot do that under the Constitution, but there will certainly be attempts to do that," the attorney submits. "Whether it is at the federal level or at the local level, it has to be stopped at all levels."
The case, Miall, et al. v. Asheville, is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
"The City of Asheville intends to vigorously defend itself against these claims," City Attorney Brad Branham tells AFN. "Beyond this, we do not comment on active litigation."
Meanwhile, as the government is further devolving into its obsession with injecting race in everything, Quinio says it is important for everyone to pay attention to this case.
"As we learned from the Supreme Court this past summer, eliminating discrimination means eliminating all of it," he notes. "The core purpose of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment is to do away with all government-imposed discrimination based on race."
