After four years of the Biden administration embedding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into nearly every aspect of government, the incoming administration has plenty of work ahead to make good on President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to uproot “woke” ideology.
The Trump administration will need to address everything from agency hiring practices and internal trainings to grant funding decisions, legal experts and DEI opponents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Gail Heriot, law professor at the University of San Diego, told the DCNF that the Trump administration needs to begin by “withdrawing Biden’s executive orders embedding DEI in every nook and cranny of the executive branch of government.”
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President Joe Biden’s day one executive order established a “whole-of-government equity agenda,” directing every agency to conduct an equity assessment. His June 2021 executive order on DEI in the federal workforce required agencies to implement training programs for employees informing them about systemic racism and implement DEI principles into hiring and promotion practices.
Trump can also reinstate his Sept. 2020 executive order, which was reversed by Biden, “combatting race and sex stereotyping.”
The ideas promoted through DEI trainings “may be fashionable in the academy, but they have no place in programs and activities supported by Federal taxpayer dollars,” the order stated.
Another early target could be ending DEI employment policies within federal agencies. DEI opponents also argue Trump needs to cut programs and grants that doll out funds based on identity.
“First and foremost the Trump administration needs to use its power over federal agencies and programs to enforce existing rules against discrimination in funding, grants, and contracting,” William Jacobson, Cornell Law School professor and founder of the Equal Protection Project, told the DCNF. “Many of the DEI practices violate the anti-discrimination laws and rules already on the books.”
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Some programs, such as those run by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), have already encountered legal roadblocks as a result of lawsuits filed by conservative groups. A federal judge held in March that the MBDA’s mission to help minority-owned businesses access capital and government contracts was unconstitutional, writing it cannot vet applicants “based on race.”
A recent report released by Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz revealed more than ten percent of grant spending by the National Science Foundation (NSF) during the Biden-Harris administration went towards research projects that promote DEI.
Going On Offense
While rooting out internal DEI programs, the Trump administration could also target similar programs in education and corporate America.
“While the Trump administration considers the elimination or reorganization of the Department of Education, it should insist that DoE’s Office for Civil Rights act on complaints of DEI discrimination promptly and forcefully,” Jacobson said. “Our Equal Protection Project (EPP, EqualProtect.org) has filed approximately 50 OCR complaints against colleges and universities in the past 18 months, but OCR has been slow to act in many cases.”
Since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in higher education last year, the EPP has filed complaints against universities for tuition reduction programs, scholarships and fellowships that include race in their eligibility criteria.
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The DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights should target “schools, employers, and nonprofit programs that give resources on the basis of race,” GianCarlo Canaparo, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told the DCNF.
“Much good can be done by suing high-profile targets, but small targets should be sued too because there are more of them, and the signaling effect that ‘you’re not too small to escape anti-discrimination law’ will be powerful,” he said.
Under Biden, the OCR has sued police and fire departments over hiring standards it deemed discriminatory due to the outcome. Maryland’s police department agreed to an over $2 million settlement after females performed worse than men on the physical test and black applicants passed the written test at a lower rate than white applicants.
Congressional Action
The most lasting changes must be made by Congress.
“At some point in the future, Democrats are going to control all those agencies again, and if these tools are on the table, they’re going to use them,” Canaparo said.
Canaparo said Congress should repeal the law he argues helped create DEI: the 1991 Amendment to Title VII.
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The amendment makes implementing policies that have a disparate impact on minorities illegal, even if the policy is neutral on its face.
Heriot argued Congress must remove incentives colleges and universities have to offer race-based preferences, such as stripping accreditors of their authority to dictate the racial composition of student bodies and ending federal programs that fund institutions with higher percentages of minorities.
Colleges have attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling by considering “adversity” scores or implementing admission essay questions about aspects of potential students’ “identity.”
In June, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance introduced the “Dismantle DEI Act of 2024” with Rep. Michael Cloud, which would eliminate all federal DEI programs and prohibit federal grant funding and contracts from promoting DEI. The legislation passed out of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday.
“If Trump is successful in his campaign to end woke discrimination, he’ll go down in history as one of the greatest presidents for the promise of racial neutrality in America,” Canaparo said.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.