A national medical advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against Gov. Greg Gianforte’s (R-MT) office challenging Montana’s use of race and gender mandates to govern appointments to public boards.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Do No Harm by the Pacific Legal Foundation this week, challenges Montana’s requirement that its governor consider race and gender when making appointments to the state’s 12-member Board of Medical Examiners.
“This type of discriminatory mandate is unconstitutional and represents the politicization of healthcare that is dangerous for patients,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, said in a press release. “Expertise should be the primary determining factor for these appointments, and Montana must get rid of discriminatory practices to refocus on medical excellence.”
Do No Harm, a membership organization, claimed it has members who would be qualified for appointment to the board in Montana but for the racial and gender quotas put in place.
Montana governors have operated under the mandate for 33 years, according to the complaint, pursuant to a “gender and racial balance” law that aims to “attain gender balance and proportional representation of minorities resident in Montana to the greatest extent possible.”
“Such blatant discrimination against individuals who could sit on the Board serves no legitimate government purpose.” the lawsuit said. “It is demeaning, patronizing, un-American, and unconstitutional.”
Two seats on the board became vacant last September, and three more will become open through 2026. The current 10-person board is comprised of six women and four men — a makeup that requires the governor to consider only men to fill the vacancies, according to the lawsuit.
Similarly, only one of the 10 members sitting on the board is from a racial minority group, requiring one of the two openings to go to a nonwhite appointee.
Do No Harm is asking a court to find the gender and racial mandates in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, as well as to issue an injunction to stop the governor and other appointing authorities from enforcing the mandates.
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“Requiring the governor to consider the race and gender of candidates for the medical board is demeaning, patronizing, un-American, and unconstitutional,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Caleb Trotter said in a press release. “Assuming that candidates bring diverse perspectives based on nothing other than their gender or race treats individuals as faceless members of a group based on their immutable characteristics.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gianforte’s office for comment.