The Set-Asides One form of affirmative-action that became popular among state and municipal governments in the mid-1970s was the minority contracting set-aside. Set-Aside programs usually involve the reservation of a fixed proportion of public contracting dollars that by law must be spent on the purchase of goods and services provided by minority-owned businesses. The Supreme Court first took up set-asides in the case of Fullilove v. Klutznick which challenged a provision of a federal law passed during the Carter administration. The provision required that 10 percent of federal funds allocated to state and local governments for public works projects be used to purchase goods and services from companies owned by members of six specified minority groups. Petitioners, several associations of construction contractors and subcontractors, and a firm engaged in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work, filed suit for declaratory and injunctive relief in federal district court, alleging that they had sustained an economic injury due to enforcement of the MBE requirement and that the Minority Business Enterprises provision, on its face, violated, inter alia, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court held in this case that the federal Set-Aside law did not violate the Equal Protection provisions of the federal Constitution because the Set-Aside provision was a legitimate remedy for present competitive disadvantages resulting from past illegal discrimination.