BALTIMORE — Baltimore City and a host of other organizations are suing the federal government over a pair of executive orders recently signed by President Donald Trump targeting Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs, better known as DEI.
During his first 48 hours in office Trump signed sweeping executive orders fulfilling a number of campaign pledges, including weeding out what he calls "illegal and immoral discrimination programs," under the guise of DEI.
One order is titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”
The White House says it's a revocation of a Biden era order forcing Federal agencies and entities to submit “Equity Action Plans,” which they argue "demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination."
"Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great," the Executive Order states.
It instructs federal agency heads to compile and terminate all equity based action plans, initiatives, programs, grants, and contracts "to the maximum extent allowed by law."
Another executive order is called “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
While the City believes it "would violate federal anti-discrimination laws," the Trump Administration details below how the order aims to "protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."
Roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.
Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.
These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.
The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination.
In their lawsuit the City contends the orders are "vague" and fail to define such terms as "DEI," which are merely acronyms the government spelled out in the language cited above.
"Because of the vagueness of President Trump’s two executive orders, Plaintiffs are left to wonder whether, and for how long, they can rely on the federal funding that Congress appropriated using its exclusive power of the purse," City lawyers state.
Despite vagueness being one of their main arguments, the City appears to acknowledge their understanding of the term in their own court filings.
"Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination on the basis of identity or disability," court papers state. "While DEIA is a relatively new acronym, the work it refers to—ensuring that all have equal opportunity—is not."
The City said federal funds are needed and used for a range of services and programs like public safety, housing, the environment, economy, infrastructure, all of which they claim helps rural, low-income, elderly, and disabled populations.
"Ordinary citizens bear the brunt. Plaintiffs and their members receive federal funds to support educators, academics, students, workers, and communities across the country. As federal agencies make arbitrary decisions about whether grants are equity-related, plaintiffs are left in limbo," the City alleges.
Another argument presented by the City is their suggestion that Trump's orders overstepped his Presidential authority because Congress already approved funding for many of the contracts and grants in question.
"In his crusade to erase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility from our country, President Trump cannot usurp Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, nor can he silence those who disagree with him by threatening them with the loss of federal funds and other enforcement actions," the City opined.
One plaintiff joining the City's lawsuit is the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, who say they're left with an "untenable choice: continue to promote their lawful diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, or suppress their own speech by ending programs or policies that the President may consider illegal DEI.”
Although Trump critics define DEI differently, allies often compare it to Affirmative Action when linked to higher education.
In June 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited longstanding Affirmative Action laws considering race or ethnicity as part of the college admissions process.
Last month, after the executive orders had been signed, Andrea R. Lucas, who Trump appointed as Acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) took to X (formerly Twitter), saying this about DEI in the workplace.
There's a lot of confusion out there about DEI, but at least on this point, there shouldn't be. The law is clear. To muddy the water on "motivating factor" liability would do the public a disservice.
— Andrea R. Lucas (@andrealucasEEOC) January 31, 2024
According to ABC's 538, polls are mixed on whether Americans support Trump's DEI efforts.
"The result seems to depend quite a bit on the question wording: In a Harvard/Harris poll from January, for example, voters supported "ending hiring for government jobs on the basis of race and returning to merit hiring of government employees," 59 percent to 41 percent. But in a Pew Research poll conducted in October, a majority of voters (52 percent) said that "focusing on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at work" is "mainly a good thing," while just 21 percent said it's "mainly a bad thing."
The City's lawsuit is just the latest of many filed against the new administration.
Maryland is also part of other litigation seeking to stop Trump from ending birthright citizenship and freezing other Congressionally appropriated funds. Both orders are temporarily on hold while the cases play out in court.
