Reading Room Document

Constitutionality of Federal Government Efforts in Contracting With Women-Owned Businesses

This statement presents the Justice Department's views on the federal government's efforts to contract with women-owned businesses in a manner consistent with the Constitution and federal statutes. Because the Justice Department's position on federal contracting programs that employ gender preferences is based on constitutional and legal standards that are not specific to the program addressed by the recently published Small Business Administration rule, the statement focuses on the legal standards that govern the Department's approach to such programs generally. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/477311/download.

January 16, 2008