FreeBeacon – Before he was tapped to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) signed into law a bill that established racial quotas throughout the state’s health department, from a requirement that two members of a pregnancy task force be “Black or African American” to rules governing the composition of a “health equity” council.
The legislation, which Walz signed last May, created race-based membership requirements for five separate committees—the Community Solutions Advisory Council, the Health Equity Advisory and Leadership Council, the Equitable Health Care Task Force, the Task Force on Pregnancy Health and Substance Use Disorders, and the African American Health State Advisory Council—while setting up additional race-conscious programs.
Legal experts who reviewed the quotas said they were patently unconstitutional and would be easy pickings for a plaintiff.
Adam Mortara, the lead trial lawyer for the plaintiffs in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the 2023 Supreme Court case that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions, said:
“Any time the government uses a racial classification without a compelling state interest, that is unconstitutional.”
“Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) described Walz as a ‘heartland-of-America Democrat’ with politics ‘right down the middle.'”
Some of the requirements Walz signed into law are highly granular and involve multiple racial groups.
The council on pregnancy and substance abuse, for example, must include “two members who identify as Black or African American,” “two members who identify as Native American,” and two additional members who are “Tribal representatives appointed by the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council.”
Other councils have quotas for Hispanics, Asian Americans, “LGBTQIA+” people, and the disabled.
It is not clear whether white people who “identify as” minorities are eligible for the positions. Walz and the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
The quotas form a stark contrast with the image of an avuncular Midwestern moderate …
