Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Justice Department to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize” private companies and universities that have “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion programs shortly after she was sworn in Wednesday, the latest attack on DEI under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Attorney General Pam Bondi took aim at DEI in memos issued on her first day in office. (Photo by ... [+]
Bondi’s memo told the Justice Department to enforce federal civil rights laws to urge private companies to abandon what she called “illegal discrimination and preferences,” outlining strategies like launching criminal and civil investigations or submitting amicus briefs.
Bondi did not specify what civil rights legislation the department would use, but some conservative activists have used the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which outlawed racial discrimination in making and enforcing contracts, to fight DEI programs in court, and James Comer, R-Ky., has advocated for using Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based employment discrimination.
She also directed the Justice Department to work with the Department of Education to eliminate DEI programs at universities that receive federal funding, citing the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard Supreme Court case, which ended affirmative action in admissions.
Bondi’s memo noted she is not calling for the cancellation of cultural observances like Black History Month or International Holocaust Remembrance Day, stating these events “celebrate diversity, recognize historical contributions, and promote awareness without engaging in exclusion or discrimination.”
In another memo issued Wednesday, Bondi ordered the department to end “identity-based considerations in employment,” eliminate DEI programs and identify whether DEI programs were “misleadingly relabeled" after the election to preserve their previous function.
In both memos, Bondi cited Trump’s executive order that directed federal agencies to end DEI practices and target DEI in the private sector. Trump has framed his anti-DEI crusade—part of a wider political backlash against diversity programs—as a return to “merit-based” hiring, and he has attacked DEI as discriminatory. As part of the push, Trump also revoked a decades-old Equal Employment Opportunity executive order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which banned federal contractors from discriminating in hiring based on race, sex, national origin or religion. Trump’s orders have led to a purge of federal employees, with dozens of staffers that didn’t work in DEI reportedly among those placed on leave. As part of the crackdown, federal agencies removed webpages and references to diversity, equity and inclusion—but this caused some pages to be erroneously removed, including at the Internal Revenue Service, which mistakenly removed pages unrelated to DEI from an employee handbook. Trump has also linked DEI, without evidence, to the fatal plane and helicopter collision near Washington, D.C., claiming diversity hiring “could have” spurred the crash.
Many companies have rolled back their programs advancing diversity and inclusion in recent months, particularly since Trump’s election victory. Google announced Wednesday it would no longer use diversity targets in hiring and would evaluate its other DEI initiatives, though it will continue to have resource groups for staff from underrepresented groups. Other companies, including Target, Amazon, Meta and McDonald’s also said they would roll back DEI programs. But other companies have stood behind their DEI policies, including Costco, which overwhelmingly rejected a shareholder proposal that would have required the company to evaluate the risks of its DEI programs. Apple’s board also urged shareholders to reject a similar resolution, while Delta Airlines, Cisco, Deutsche Bank and the NFL have also reaffirmed their commitments to DEI.
Google Ends Diversity Hiring Goals—Here Are All The Companies Rolling Back DEI (Forbes)