Overview
- U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued the ruling on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, blocking Houston and the Midtown Management District from enforcing the race-conscious parts of the Minority, Women and Small Business Enterprise program.
- Hittner applied the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative-action standard and said the city failed to identify concrete, particularized instances of past unlawful discrimination needed to justify race-based remedies.
- The opinion strikes only the race-based provisions while leaving non-racial supports in place, so programs for small businesses and women-owned firms can continue to operate.
- City Attorney Arturo Michel said Houston will comply for existing and recently awarded contracts and is considering an appeal, and the couple who sued the city have a related suit pending against Harris County.
- The decision could spur more challenges to municipal contracting programs across Texas and the nation because it sets an early district-court application of the post-2023 legal test that limits how governments may use race to address disparities.