Supreme Court Won't Hear Affirmative Action Challenge The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider the latest challenge to affirmative action programs in federal procurement. Without comment, the court declined May 17 to hear the challenges to the Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program brought by two contractors, Sherbrooke Turf Inc. of Minnesota and Gross Seed Co. of Nebraska. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the DBE program Oct. 6. In November the Supreme Court refused to consider a challenge to an affirmative action program for minority- and woman-owned businesses in Denver. But the court may simply be waiting for the right case to revisit the issue. In 2001, when it dismissed a second challenge to the DOT program by Adarand Constructors Inc. on procedural grounds, the court acknowledged, “This case presents questions of fundamental national importance calling for final resolution by this Court.”