Fearless Fund Defends Grant Program For Black Women In US Appeals Court Amid Lawsuit

Fearless Fund has urged a US appeals court to allow its grant program to resume, which awards funding to businesses run by Black women.

The Fearless Fund Story To Date

The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) attacked Fearless Fund in August 2023 after it claimed the fund’s grant was racially discriminatory.

The AAER, founded by Edward Blum, who was behind the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, accused the grant program of violating Section 1081 of the Civil Rights Act of 1886.

The US District, Thomas V. Thrash, initially ruled that Fearless Fund could continue offering the grant program; however, a week later, a panel of federal judges temporarily blocked the program.

They claimed it was “racially exclusionary” and “substantially likely” to violate a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in contracting.

At the end of last year, Fearless Fund appealed the decision.

“Forcing the Foundation to adopt race-neutral criteria would disable the Foundation from conveying its message on the precise topic it seeks to address: economic disadvantages faced by Black women,” Fearless Fund lawyers wrote.

Now, a conservative-leaning three-judge appeals panel has heard both parties during an expedited hearing in Miami.

Fearless Fund Defends Its Grant

According to Reuters, lawyers for Fearless Fund told the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals during a nearly hour-long hearing that it had a constitutional right to express its belief in the importance of Black women to the economy through charity.

Fearless Fund attorney Jason Schwartz said that right under the US Constitution’s First Amendment trumped claims by Edward Blum’s AAER that the program’s criteria violated a Civil War-era law barring racial discrimination in contracting.

“Americans speak with their money,” he said. “They magnify their message with their money. You can spend it to send whatever message you want.”

According to the Fearless Fund, businesses owned by Black women in 2022 received less than 1% of the $288 billion that venture capital firms deployed. Their goal is to address that disparity.

However, a lawyer for Blum’s group argued that Fearless Fund had adopted a “categorical racial bar” against other applicants in violation of Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act.