On January 19, 2005, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) filed an amicus brief supporting the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Section 8(a) program. The program is an educational and training initiative designed to support and increase business opportunities for economically and socially disadvantaged small businesses, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) program designating certain contracts for Section 8(a) participants. DynaLantic, a flight simulation training company based in Deer Park, New York, is challenging the constitutionality of the Section 8(a) and DoD programs.
LDF submitted an amicus brief when the case was filed originally in the District Court for the District of Columbia in 1996. In 2005, summary judgment motions by DynaLantic and the federal defendants provided LDF an opportunity to file a second amicus brief. The second brief focuses on the “distinctively compelling need for these programs for minority-owned, particularly African-American businesses, which continue to be substantially disadvantaged by America’s history of racial apartheid.”
