By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a venture capital fund from moving forward with a grant program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women in a case by the anti-affirmative action activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote granted a request by Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights to temporarily block Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women.

Blum’s group asked the court to do so while it appealed a judge’s Tuesday ruling denying it a preliminary injunction blocking Fearless Fund from moving forward with its “racially exclusive program.” Grant applications were due Saturday.

The judges in the majority, U.S. Circuit Judges Robert Luck and Andrew Brasher, agreed with Blum’s group that Fearless Fund’s “racially exclusionary” grant program likely violated Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, a Civil War-era law that bars racial bias in contracting.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash earlier this week had concluded that under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment’s free speech protections, Fearless Fund had a right to express its belief in the importance of Black women to the economy through charity.

But the appeals court’s majority, comprised of two appointees of former Republican President Donald Trump, said the First Amendment “does not give the defendants the right to exclude persons from a contractual regime based on race.”

“The members of the American Alliance for Equal Rights are gratified that the 11th Circuit has recognized the likelihood that the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest is illegal,” Blum said in a statement. “We look forward to the final resolution of this lawsuit.”

Fearless Fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It has argued that Blum was trying to “turn a seminal civil rights statute on its head” by suing it under a Civil War-era law enacted to protect formerly enslaved Black people from racial bias.

The lawsuit is one of three that Blum’s Texas-based group had filed since August challenging grant and fellowship programs designed by the venture capital fund and two law firms to help give Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority groups greater career opportunities.

A different group founded by Blum, who is white, was behind the litigation that led to the June decision, powered by the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, declaring race-conscious student admissions policies used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina unlawful.

According to the Fearless Fund, businesses owned by Black women in 2022 received less than 1% of the $288 billion that venture capital firms deployed.

The fund aims to address that disparity, and counts JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and MasterCard as investors. It has invested nearly $27 million in 40 businesses led by minority women since its founding in 2019.

It also provides grants, and Blum’s lawsuit took aim at its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards Black women who own small businesses $20,000 in grants and other resources to grow their businesses.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Andrea Ricci)

Maxwell Hairston, the star of Kentucky’s win over Vanderbilt last weekend, became a celebrity in the college football world for his two pick-6s against the Commodores — the first player in school history to pull that off in a single game. Even days removed from his National Defensive Player of the Week performance, the redshirt sophomore cornerback is still making the media rounds.

On Wednesday, Hairston went on the SEC Network’s Out of Pocket show to talk with Alyssa Lang and Takeo Spikes about the win over Vanderbilt and Kentucky’s plans for Florida this weekend. When asked what he’s seen on film regarding the Gators this week, Hairston was quick to answer, immediately identifying Florida’s rushing attack as UK’s top priority on defense. It’s been a theme all week for the Wildcats’ defensive approach.

“We have to pay attention to the running backs, definitely have to wrap up on them,” Hairston said of UF. “They have a good group of running backs, a good group of receivers. We’ve just been watching what they like to do, all the different formations, and we’ve just been studying. They’re an explosive offense, and we just got to make sure we’re dialed into every call and be able to recognize the different formations they come out in.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman acknowledged triggering a fire alarm Saturday in one of the U.S. Capitol office buildings as lawmakers scrambled to pass a bill to fund the government before the midnight shutdown deadline.

The fire alarm sounded out around noon in the Cannon House Office Building and prompted a building-wide evacuation at a time when the House was in session and staffers were working in the building. The building was reopened an hour later after Capitol Police determined it was not a threat.

The GOP-controlled House Administration Committee, which oversees issues pertaining to the Capitol complex, posted a picture of a person pulling the fire alarm who appeared to be Bowman.

The New York lawmaker told reporters hours later that it was a mistake and that he was rushing to get to votes and was trying to get through a door that is usually open, but was closed due to it being a weekend.

“I thought it would help me open the door,” he said about pulling the trigger, denying that it was an effort to stall anything.

Capitol Police said in a statement late Saturday that an “investigation into what happened and why continues.”

At the time of the evacuation House Democrats were working to delay a vote on a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open. They said they needed time to review the 71-page bill that Republicans abruptly released to avoid a shutdown.

The funding package was ultimately approved 335-91 on Saturday afternoon, with most Republicans and almost all Democrats — including Bowman — supporting the bill.

After the vote, Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, criticized Bowman over the fire alarm. Some lawmakers even floated the idea of drafting a motion to expel or censure him from the House.

“This should not go without punishment,” McCarthy told reporters. “This is an embarrassment.”

He added that he plans to talk with the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to figure out a possible response.

But Jeffries met with Bowman shortly after the vote and Bowman said his fellow New York colleague was “supportive.”

“He understood that it was a mistake and that’s all it was,” he said. Bowman added that the reaction from McCarthy and other Republicans is dishonest.

“(McCarthy’s) trying to weaponize a mistake of me coming, rushing to get to a vote as something nefarious when it wasn’t,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.