Judge Halts Key Parts of Trump’s DEI Orders
A federal court has thrown a monkey wrench into President Trump’s aggressive attempts to rid the country of DEI. In an early ruling, a judge temporarily blocked key parts of the President’s Executive Orders to end discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs.
Maryland federal district court Judge Adam Abelson, a recent Biden appointee, ruled that the White House directives likely violated the Constitution.
Earlier this month, a group of diversity officers and professors sued the administration, claiming its orders to terminate DEI grants, require DEI certifications, and bring enforcement actions were void for vagueness and violated their First Amendment rights to free speech.
The government argued its orders were expressly limited to DEI programs that violated federal civil rights laws—laws the groups have no First Amendment right to break in the first place—but to no avail.
The court said the administration failed to define key terms in the orders, such as “DEI,” “let alone identify the types of programs or policies the administration considers ‘illegal.'” That left individuals and organizations with “no reasonable way to know what, if anything, they can do to bring their grants into compliance such that they are not considered ‘equity-related.’”
Judge Abelson also barred the government from requiring grantees to certify they don’t promote DEI programs in any way, even where the DEI-related activities occur outside the scope of the federal funding. But, the court held, the law prohibits “the government leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Enforcement of the orders—which the court called “textbook viewpoint-based discrimination”—is also temporarily blocked.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller blasted the decision on X—arguing that a judge cannot nullify the Civil Rights Act and order the government to award federal taxpayer dollars to organizations that discriminate based on race:
For now, the court’s ruling, embedded below, bars the administration (excluding the President) from ending DEI grants, requiring DEI certifications, and bringing enforcement actions. Meanwhile, as the Administration wrestles with how to respond to this latest order, it is likely to become increasingly obvious that the flaws the court seizes on—notably, that the orders are impermissibly vague—are exactly what makes DEI initiatives such an insidious threat. Race-based discrimination in the name of vague notions of “equity” and “inclusion” is a scourge the president promised, early in his campaign, to end. The only question, as the litigation plays out, is how much of that promise will be fulfilled by way of Executive Order.
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