Pacific Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights to stop what PLF calls "Alabama's unlawful racial quota for appointments" to the Appraisers Board.
The board's members are appointed by the governor, in this case Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.
PLF attorney Glenn Roper says an Alabama statute requires the nine-member board to seat two racial minorities.
"This is something that we've identified that is happening in a number of states across the country,” he says, “where public boards that regulate various professions have racial or gender quotas built into them.”
According to Roper, Gov. Ivey agrees the law is unconstitutional but she is fighting the lawsuit on the grounds the American Alliance for Equal Rights doesn’t have legal standing to challenge the statute.
“She says that she sent all new nominations to the senate for this Board, including enough racial minorities to satisfy the racial quota,” Roper advises. “So she says because she sent these nominations, and because the quota is full, that there is not something left for us to challenge."
Neither the Governor nor the Board has replied to AFN's request for comment going back to AFN's initial report on the lawsuit in February.
