A Biden-appointed judge in Baltimore refused on Wednesday to freeze President Trump's March order against discriminatory DEI by federal contractors, ruling it reaches only conduct federal law already prohibits.
President Trump's crackdown on discriminatory DEI in federal contracting has survived its first court test. On Wednesday in Baltimore, U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson — an appointee of Joe Biden — declined to block the administration's March executive order while the lawsuit against it proceeds, Reuters reported.
The order bars racially discriminatory DEI activities by companies doing business with the U.S. government, and it makes contractors certify their compliance in writing. Fall out of line, and a company can lose its contracts and face investigation under the False Claims Act — the government's fraud law — on top of it.
The challenge came from groups representing university faculty and minority business owners, who argue the order wrongly presumes that all DEI amounts to illegal discrimination and reaches speech protected by the Constitution. Abelson ruled they had failed to show the March order was too broad.
That is the heart of the decision: the order does not create a new crime. It takes aim at intentional discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity — conduct federal law already prohibits — and the judge let it stand while the case filed in April moves forward. "The Contractors Order only prohibits contractors from engaging in conduct that is already prohibited by federal law: intentional discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity."
Democracy Forward, the progressive legal group representing the challengers, argued the decision at least confirms the order does not broadly prohibit diversity programs and reaches no further than a contractor's work on the specific contract. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling lands across a wide slice of the economy: many of the largest U.S. businesses — defense, tech, food service and logistics firms — are federal contractors. Civil-rights advocates say DEI addresses historic inequities; Trump and conservatives answer that race-based programs are themselves discriminatory and anti-merit, and his administration is eradicating them.
A separate challenge by 19 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C. is still pending in the same court. For now, Trump's order remains in force, and contractors must keep certifying — with the first court test decided by a judge his own opponents appointed.
Never miss a story.
Join our Telegram channel and get every article link the second it’s published.
Join Telegram Channel