united-states discrimination
Is it legal for a public US university to advise its employees to purchase from businesses owned by people of color?
<p>A public US university I'm familiar with is promoting an anti-racism initiative. As part of this initiative, a web article posted on the university's diversity web portal (which was advertised in an email newsletter to the university community) contains a list of suggested actions that employees and departments can take to advance the cause of anti-racism. One of the actions on the list is to support businesses owned by people of color. The recommendation is accompanied by links to various lists of black-owned businesses in the region.</p>
<p>Is it legal for a public US university administration to advise its employees to patronize businesses owned by people of a specific race, both in their private lives and in the transaction of official university business?</p>

<p>Advising employees to take some lawful action is legal, and is speech protected by the US Constitution. Campaigning for a political candidate could jeopardize the university's tax-exempt status, but there is no law requiring a university, even a government university, to remain politically neutral. That alone answers the question.</p>
<p>Whether or not the university could itself pursue racially-weighted business policies depends on what they are doing and what state it is in. It is generally legal to adopt policies that address discrimination, but 9 states have laws banning affirmative action. The cases <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grutter_v._Bollinger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratz_v._Bollinger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gratz v. Bollinger</a> establish that &quot;blanket policies&quot; run counter to the requirements of the 14th Amendment, but race can be used as a factor in making decisions. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States#Supreme_Court_Cases" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here is a list</a> or affirmative action related decisions in the US. As applied to a state's affirmative action programs, the standard of legality would be having a clear goal of limited scope without other workable race-neutral means to achieve it.</p>
