Orion Insurance Group, et al. v. Washington State Office of Minority & Women's Business Enterprises, et al.

Whether a federal agency determining whether an individual is a member of a minority group for purposes of inclusion in a federal program should give full faith and credit, or at least extreme deference, to the prior determination by a state agency that the applicant is a member of that minority group for purposes of a parallel state program.

Whether the definitions and standards in 49 C.F.R. §§ 26.5 and 26.63 are impermissibly vague and permit the arbitrary and capricious decisions that occurred in this case, such as Mr. Taylor being certified as Black for Washington State’s Minority Business Enterprise (“MBE”) program but denied certification as Black for the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (“DBE”) program.

Whether the Ninth Circuit’s decisions improperly placed impediments to enforcing discrimination laws as to state government employees where it: a. Held that the federal DBE program is not a “program” within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, and therefore places state employees beyond this discrimination law; and b. Held the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting test did not apply to Mr. Taylor’s discrimination claims brought under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 2000d, which also creates a conflict between the circuits.