United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

983 F.
2d 197
60 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 42,055, 61 USLW 2509
The CONE CORPORATION; J.W. Conner & Sons; Bulger

Contracting Co.; Boyce Company; S & E
Contractors, Inc.; Woodruff & Sons,
Inc.; Suncoast Utility
Contractors
Association,
PlaintiffsAppellants,
Cone Constructors, Inc.; Dallas 1 Construction &
Development, Inc., Plaintiffs,
v.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY; Frederick B. Karl, DefendantsAppellees.
No. 91-4194.
United States Court of Appeals,

Eleventh Circuit.
Feb. 8, 1993.
Herbert P. Schlanger, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiffs-appellants.

MacFarlane, Ferguson, Allison & Kelly, Claude H. Tison, Jr., Tampa,
Fla., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of
Florida.
Before KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge, GODBOLD and OAKES* , Senior
Circuit Judges.
OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge:
This case comes before the court on an appeal from a grant of summary
judgment for the defendant, Hillsborough County, Florida. The United States
District Court granted the county's motion after concluding that the
nonminority general contractor plaintiffs-appellants had no standing to
challenge, on equal protection grounds, the county's minority business
enterprise program (MBE). 777 F.Supp. 1558. As appellants have alleged no
injury in fact, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
2
This court has reviewed the details of the county's plan before, in Cone Corp. v.
Hillsborough County, 908 F.2d 908, 909-11 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S.
983, 111 S.Ct. 516, 112 L.Ed.2d 528 (1990), when it reversed the district
court's grant of summary judgment to the contractors. For the purpose of this
appeal, we review the facts only briefly.
Hillsborough County, which includes the city of Tampa, Florida, instituted its
first MBE program in 1978 in order to be eligible for federal funding for a
variety of construction projects. Initially, the county instituted a voluntary
program. In 1984, after studying the effects of the voluntary program for six
years, it concluded that more serious measures would be needed to increase
minority participation in county contracts.
The mandatory program challenged by the appellants was instituted in 1988. It

does not include quotas or set-asides for minority contractors or subcontractors,
nor does it grant any bidding preferences to minorities. Rather, it requires the
county to set goals for minority participation in particular contracts before
bidding. No goals are included in the bid specifications on any contract unless
at least three minority subcontractors in the area are available and capable of
doing the work. A contractor whose bid does not include the requisite MBE
participation may nonetheless win the contract if it can demonstrate a goodfaith effort at compliance, or if its bid is substantially lower than the lowest
responsive bid. Minority general contractors who plan to complete at least 51%
of the work on a project themselves need only meet 50% of the goal for
minority subcontractor participation.
The key point for purposes of this case is that all contractors, both minority and
nonminority, must include minority participation where it is feasible, and must
demonstrate a good-faith effort to find minority subcontractors where they are
available. There is only one provision in the county's resolution which treats
minority and nonminority general contractors differently: the reduction in the
MBE goal for minority general contractors who do more than 50% of the work
themselves. Appellants have alleged no injury stemming from the operation of
this provision.
6
In 1989, the contractors filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief and a

declaratory judgment that the program created an unconstitutional racial
preference in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment. Appellants alleged three types of injury: (1) that they were
deterred by extra risk and cost from bidding on county projects, thus foregoing
profits; (2) that they lost profits on contracts they were awarded because they
had to use minority subcontractors who were not the lowest bidders, rather than
using low bidding nonminority subcontractors or their own workforce; and (3)
that they expended money complying with the county's requirement that they
make good faith efforts to meet the MBE goals.
The district court, after a brief hearing, granted a preliminary injunction barring
continued enforcement of the program. Cone Corp. v. Hillsborough County,
723 F.Supp. 669 (M.D.Fla.1989). In 1990, the district court granted summary
judgment for the contractors and entered a final order making the preliminary
injunction permanent. Cone Corp. v. Hillsborough County, 730 F.Supp. 1568
(M.D.Fla.1990). This court reversed. Cone Corp. v. Hillsborough County, 908
F.2d 908 (11th Cir.1990).
Following this court's reversal of the summary judgment motion for the
contractors, and after further discovery, the county filed a summary judgment
motion, arguing both that it should prevail on the merits and that the contractors
had failed to allege any injury sufficient to confer standing. The county also
filed, in the alternative, a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. The district
judge granted both motions, concluding that precedents of this court compelled
a finding that the contractors had no standing, although she expressed doubts as
to whether these cases were consistent with the Supreme Court's standing
precedents.
The district court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1331 (1988). This court
has appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1291 (1988).
DISCUSSION
10
Under Article III of the Constitution, the appellant contractors have no standing
to challenge the county's MBE program unless they can allege an injury which
is traceable to the program and redressable by court action. Valley Forge
Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 454
U.S. 464, 472, 102 S.Ct. 752, 758, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982). The district court
properly rejected the contractors' claims for failure to allege an injury in fact.
11
In an effort to satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement, appellants claim that they

have absorbed extra costs and suffered a loss of profits by complying with the
program's requirements, and that they will lose future profits because they are
deterred by extra risks and costs from competing for contracts with
Hillsborough County.
12
As this court's previous cases have made clear, appellants cannot allege an
economic injury from the operation of an MBE program unless that program
requires them to compete on an uneven economic playing field or bars them
from competing for certain contracts. Northeastern Fla. Chapter of the Assoc'd
Gen. Contractors of Am. v. City of Jacksonville, 951 F.2d 1217 (11th Cir.),
cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 50, 121 L.Ed.2d 20 (1992); Cone Corp. v.
Fla. Dep't of Transp., 921 F.2d 1190 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111
S.Ct. 2238, 114 L.Ed.2d 479 (1991); S.J. Groves & Sons Co. v. Fulton County,
920 F.2d 752 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2274, 114 L.Ed.2d
725 and cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2893, 115 L.Ed.2d 1057 (1991);
Capeletti Bros. v. Broward County, 738 F.Supp. 1415 (S.D.Fla.1990), aff'd
without op., 931 F.2d 903 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2871,
115 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1991). Other circuits use the same criteria to find standing
in challenges to MBE programs. See, e.g., O'Donnell Const. Co. v. District of
Columbia, 963 F.2d 420, 423 (D.C.Cir.1992); Coral Const. Co. v. King
County, 941 F.2d 910, 930 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct.
875, 116 L.Ed.2d 780 reh'g denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1307, 117 L.Ed.2d
529 (1992). Only if the MBE program discriminates in one of these ways does
it cause injury to contractors. Competition on an uneven playing field--where
the rules in effect operate to favor one bidder over another--causes injury by
forcing contractors to lower their bids to compete with those granted bidding
advantages. E.g., Coral Const. Co., 941 F.2d at 930 (MBEs could win contract
with bid 5% higher than lowest bid). Set-aside programs may cause injury by
barring potential bidders from competing for certain contracts. Cf. Regents of
the Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978)
(loss of opportunity to compete for some spaces in medical school class may be
an injury). However, when a program neither bars competition for contracts,
nor forces competition under rules favoring some bidders over others, the
contractors do not lose profits. To the extent that their costs are increased, they
are free to factor these costs into their bids.
13
Appellants allege no economic injuries whatsoever. Their allegations consist of

bald assertions that they have lost profits because they did not factor increased
costs into their bids. However, Hillsborough County has not cut into the
contractors' profit margin; rather, it has mandated the use of certain supplies-the work of minority subcontractors--even if they are more expensive than the
alternatives, and even if obtaining them increases overhead costs. The effect on
general contractors is no different from that of requiring them to use better
quality plywood, to improve their safety standards, or to beef up their
recordkeeping practices. Indeed, "[a]ccepting as true that the [MBE] program
increases costs, there is no injury to the bidders or their profits. It would be the
irrational businessman who did not factor such costs into his bid." Capeletti
Bros., Inc., 738 F.Supp. at 1417. There is simply no reason to believe that the
appellants will lose profits as a result of the operation of this program if, like
their competitors, they factor these costs into their bids. If they choose not to do
so, that is a business decision, not an injury.
14
Indeed, it is Hillsborough County, not the appellants, which incurs extra costs
on individual contracts whenever contractors comply with its bidding
requirements by hiring subcontractors who are not low bidders. Because the
MBE program was instituted in order to comply with federal grant
requirements, as discussed above, both the county and the contractors benefit
from the availability of federal funding for county projects. Appellants actually
may have gained funds as a result of the county's actions: had the county
refused to comply with the federal grant requirements, thereby foregoing
federal funding, it would not have as much money to spend on contractors'
services.
15
Appellants suggest, as did the district court, that Supreme Court standing
precedents require a different result. They claim that the Supreme Court's
standing requirements in equal protection cases are much more flexible than
this court's previous cases have suggested, and that all that is required is an
"identifiable trifle" of injury, for which point they cite United States v. Students
Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP), 412 U.S. 669, 689 n. 14,
93 S.Ct. 2405, 2417 n. 14, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973), Pennell v. City of San Jose,
485 U.S. 1, 7, 108 S.Ct. 849, 855, 99 L.Ed.2d 1 (1988) (standing not a
"mechanical exercise," quoting Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct.
3315, 3324, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984)), and Village of Arlington Heights v.
Metro. Housing Dev't Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 262-63, 97 S.Ct. 555, 562, 50
L.Ed.2d 450 (1977) (noneconomic injury to contractors who wished to build
low-income housing may confer standing). However, unlike the student
members of SCRAP, who alleged that they would suffer harm from the
degradation of the environment should the Interstate Commerce Commission
raise freight rates in a manner which might discourage the use of recycled
goods by increasing their costs, appellants have alleged no injury to themselves
at all. Appellants' use of the other cases is similarly flawed. While they cite to a
broad range of cases involving injuries tenuously connected to the challenged

action, or which would occur only if a series of additional events took place,
they cite to no case in which the Supreme Court has ruled that plaintiffs had
standing despite the failure to allege that they had suffered an injury in fact. See
also Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law 111-29 (2d ed. 1988). 1
16
The contractors also claim that they must have standing, because otherwise no
one would be in a position to challenge the program. First of all, it is by no
means clear that no one else could challenge the Hillsborough County program.
More importantly, lack of an appropriate plaintiff would not suffice to confer
standing on appellants, or on anyone else, simply because they wish to
challenge a government action. Schlesinger v. Reservists Comm. to Stop the
War, 418 U.S. 208, 227, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 2935, 41 L.Ed.2d 706 (1974).
17
Finally, the county urges us to reach the merits of this case despite the lack of
standing, so as to forestall future challenges to its program. Because appellants
have no standing, there is no justiciable controversy before us. Consequently,
we reject this suggestion.
18
AFFIRMED.
Honorable James L. Oakes, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit,
sitting by designation
Appellants rely in part on Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 486 n. 1,
74 S.Ct. 686, 687 n. 1, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954) to support their argument that the
Supreme Court would grant them standing. They suggest that the Brown
plaintiffs were afforded standing to challenge segregation in public schools
even though substantially equal unsegregated schools were available to them,
citing footnote one of the Brown opinion
Appellants have misread the Brown footnote, which indicates only that in the
Topeka case, students were segregated in elementary schools, but not secondary
schools, not that unsegregated schools were available to the Topeka plaintiffs.
The students challenging that city's mandatory segregation policy were
elementary school students. In all of the other cities, the segregation was
complete. Brown has nothing to do with this case.

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983 F.

The CONE CORPORATION; J.W. Conner & Sons; Bulger

United States Court of Appeals,

Herbert P. Schlanger, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiffs-appellants.

The mandatory program challenged by the appellants was instituted in 1988. It

In 1989, the contractors filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief and a

In an effort to satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement, appellants claim that they

Appellants allege no economic injuries whatsoever. Their allegations consist of

broad range of cases involving injuries tenuously connected to the challenged

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