Trump’s order on diversity training put on hold

Just before Christmas, outgoing President Donald Trump’s controversial Executive Order (EO) banning federal contractors and subcontractors from offering “workplace training that inculcates in its employees any form of race or sex stereotyping or any form of race or sex scapegoating” hit a major roadblock. On December 22, 2020, California Federal District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted a preliminary nationwide injunction prohibiting the EO from taking effect. The court order was sought by a number of nonprofit community organizations and consultants serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

Injunction in place

In her order, Judge Freeman, an Obama appointee, found the groups seeking the injunction were likely to prevail at trial on their arguments that federal contractors’ free speech rights were being restricted.

Judge Freeman acknowledged the government “has a legitimate interest in controlling the scope of diversity training in the federal workforce and can limit the expenditure of federal funds.” Nonetheless, she found the EO’s scope was overbroad because, as worded, it would prohibit contractors from using their own funds to train employees on matters that “potentially have nothing to do with the federal contract.”