City of Asheville settles lawsuit alleging race-based discrimination

Last week, the City of Asheville amended its membership requirements for its Human Relations Commission to settle a lawsuit brought against the city alleging race-based discrimination. The lawsuit was brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of several Asheville residents who claimed the city enacted a racially discriminatory membership requirement.  

“Government has a constitutional duty to treat all people equally under the law,” said Andrew Quinio, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation who represents the residents. “Asheville should treat its citizens based on their character, qualifications, and achievements, not on characteristics they cannot control like race or ethnicity.” 

At the City Council meeting, Asheville City Councilor and progressive mayoral candidate Kim Roney said she was voting no because settling the lawsuit did not align with the “spirit of the community.” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer responded that, given the new leadership in Washington, DEI policies were dead. The City would likely lose the lawsuit and spend significant amounts of taxpayers’ money on a losing issue, which is why settling was necessary. Saying that the Council needed to be pragmatic. Manheimer said, “We can’t all vote no. But I appreciate you symbolically voting to protest the change.”  

Roney sniped back, saying, “Thank you for the response and opportunity to comment. I will add that sometimes we can’t do anything and sometimes we should do what we can. Like fighting for human and civil rights and our constitutional rights. And that’s something our community needs us to do.”  

Manheimer responded, “I wasn’t trying to get into anything. But I guess you’re saying that you want to continue with the litigation.” Roney dodged the question.  

Background on this case: John Miall served in Asheville City for over thirty years, including as the Director of Risk Management. In his retirement, Miall continued his record of public service on various boards in city government, and co-founded The Asheville Project, a community-based health care program for the city’s workforce launched in 1997.  

The City Council established the Human Relations Commission of Asheville in 2017 to “promote human relationships throughout the city.” Despite his decades of public service, Miall’s application was denied because of his race. The HRC initially contained quotes requiring the Council to populate the 15-member board with specific numbers of people who, from clarifications like African Americans, Latinx, LGBTQ members, “professionals with influence,” youth members, a representative from each of the city’s geographical areas, public housing residents, and individuals with disabilities. 

After struggling to successfully fill this appointment, the City reduced the board to nine members with a similar racially discriminatory quota system. 

In addition to Miall, the City declined the application of four additional Asheville citizens. With free representation by Pacific Legal Foundation, John, Robyn, David, Willa, and Danie filed a federal lawsuit challenging the HRCA’s race-based membership criteria as violating the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee. 

Tim’s Take: The dust-up between Roney and Manheimer demonstrates how the radical left will pull the Democrat Party into losing fights. The City was clearly going to lose this lawsuit if it went to trial, both wasting taxpayer funds and establishing a legal precedent contrary to their ideological objectives. But Roney seems to want to continue the litigation anyway.