OAKLAND Calif.
A lawsuit claims concession contracts at Oakland International Airport are being awarded in violation of a voter-approved law banning preference given based on race, gender or ethnicity.

The suit, announced by the Pacific Legal Foundation on Monday, says the city of Oakland and the Port of Oakland, the agency that runs the airport, are violating Proposition 209, approved by voters in 1996, in granting contracts.

According to the lawsuit, an airport concessions program sets an overall goal of having 18.7 percent of the airport's non-car-rental concession business operated by companies owned primarily by non-whites or women.

Airport officials issued a statement saying that their concessions program is federally approved and "has never used quotas to achieve its nondiscrimination goals."

Pacific Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit on behalf of the American Civil Rights Foundation.

- Associated Press

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