View from K Street: Discrimination enforcement: Down for the count

The second Trump administration has few hallmarks of consistency. The numerous policy reversals, the rapid personnel changes, the dizzying “rogue’s gallery” of enemies and friends make it difficult to know what the goal is or who's in charge—with one important exception: From Day One, the administration declared war on antidiscrimination in employment. Often couched as an attack on DEI, the administration has, in fact, launched a multifaceted and highly coordinated assault on the very bases of a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic workforce, one which American businesses have encouraged and espoused. There are discernible steps to this devolution. 

Revocation of Executive Order (EO) 11246. This 1965 EO was regarded as a foundational effort to mirror the objectives of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by using the government’s procurement power to combat discrimination across the entire employment process. Often misunderstood and pilloried as creating quotas, it not only helped diversify the workforce but also created the understanding among federal contractors that fairness and equal opportunity were part of doing business with the government. Its rescission on the first day of Trump’s second term and the subsequent issuance of EO 14173, which ended affirmative action and disposed of affirmative action plans, was a shattering declaration of war on equal employment.