Are there really examples in Missouri where government entities are granting preferences based on race?
ABSOLUTELY! Scholarships and other programs that provide access to certain people groups while excluding others abound at universities and colleges across the state. This practice is truly entrenched in higher education. Also, various cities and municipalities have established “goals” for minority contracting, which effectively serve as the functional equivalent as quotas. Won’t the ban on discrimination based on sex result in such things as unisex public restrooms, or interfere with legitimate, gender-specific government functions such as undercover police operations? The answer to all these questions is an unequivocal – No! The amendment provides a specific exception for “bona fide qualifications based on sex that are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which has the exact same exception clause — has an over four-decade history of legal interpretation and there is settled case law
