There is enough evidence to suggest state transportation officials “were motivated by discriminatory intent or purpose” when they sought to remove a Louisville company from a minority business program, a federal judge has ruled in allowing the lawsuit to continue.

A former state employee had claimed transportation officials treated some African-American companies unfairly under a program for minority businesses.

Reed Hampton, a former investigator for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's disadvantaged business program, made the allegations in a lawsuit involving a contract on the Ohio River Bridges Project.

Mathis & Sons and owner Maureen Mathis failed to show evidence of discrimination in a civil rights lawsuit they filed against Kentucky in 2014, a Transportation Cabinet attorney argued in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

Through September, more than 90 percent of contracts to women- and minority- owned businesses have gone to Kentucky and Indiana companies.

Mathis & Sons alleges Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's "fraudulent and discriminatory actions" cost the company a contract on the Ohio River Bridges Project.

Louisville firm claims Transportation Cabinet defied inspector's recommendation on minority certification, leading to lost business.