Attorney General Hanaway Files Suit Against Kansas City For Blatant Race-and Sex-Based Discrimination

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed suit to stop Kansas City from engaging in blatant race‑ and sex‑based discrimination in public contracting. Attorney General Hanaway seeks to protect Missourians from clear constitutional violations, restore equal opportunity, and ensure every contractor can succeed based on merit.

“Kansas Citians deserve a system based on fairness, merit, and equal treatment, not one that sorts people and spends taxpayer dollars based on race or sex,” said Attorney General Hanaway. “The City’s unlawful quotas violate the core promise of equal protection under the law, shut out qualified businesses, and deny hardworking Missourians the chance to compete on a level playing field.”

The Attorney General’s lawsuit raises Fourteenth Amendment claims against Kansas City’s Minority and Woman Business Enterprise (MWBE) program codified in the City’s Code of Ordinances. This program selects contractors by determining if they are a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) or Women Business Enterprise (WBE). Kansas City has a percentage-based quota for its contracts that must be awarded to specific race and sex groups. If contractor bids are not in compliance with the MWBE ordinance, they must be rejected.

Recent evidence further undermines the standing of the City’s program. The City’s internal taxpayer-funded “disparity study” did not find any compelling interest or need to maintain the discriminatory ordinance. Yet, after the results were presented to the City Council in May 2026, City leadership declined to change the policy and continued enforcing quotas that violate federal law.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has said that “courts suck” and that he disagrees with the legal rules prohibiting affirmative action and other types of race discrimination. Despite these statements, his personal disagreement with the courts and the Constitution does not authorize Kansas City to perpetuate unlawful race- and sex-based discrimination.

Attorney General Hanaway asks the court to permanently end Kansas City’s discriminatory contracting practices and restore a system grounded in fairness, constitutional compliance, and equal treatment under the law.

The full lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri can be read here.