On January 21, 2025, President Trump’s first full day in office, he issued an Executive Order targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs.1
Titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” the Order sets out a policy to “protect individual initiative, excellence, and hard work…” by terminating “all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements” within the federal government. The Order also directs the government “to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”
Key provisions of the Order are summarized below:
- Section 3 (“Terminating Illegal Discrimination in Federal Government”). Section 3 rescinds EO 11246, along with other Executive Orders that promote diversity within the federal government and protect federal employees from discrimination. EO 11246, signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, required federal government contractors to develop and maintain affirmative action programs. In addition, among other things, Sec. 3 prohibits the federal Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) from promoting diversity. Section 3 also requires all federal government contractors and grant recipients to certify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws. Finally, the Order directs the Office of Management and Budget to excise references to DEI principles from all federal acquisition, contracting, grants, and financial assistance procedures, and to terminate all terminate all diversity and equity programs and activities.
- Section 4 (“Encouraging the Private Sector to End Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences”). This Section orders the head of every federal agency to identify the “most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners” by identifying “up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.”
- Section 5 (“Other Actions”). Section 5 directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education to issue guidance to all institutions of higher education that receive federal grants or participate in federal student loan programs regarding measures and practices they must follow to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action programs in college and university admissions.
This Executive Order is one of many consequential changes impacting employers that the Trump-Vance administration has announced and will seek to implement over the course of their administration. Our team will continue to track and analyze this and other significant directives and policy changes as they are announced. Expect further alerts and guidance regarding these important topics.
1 For purposes of this Alert, both DEI and DEIA programs will be referred to as DEI programs.