On May 20, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opened the platform for employers to submit EEO-1 reports. In doing so, EEOC Acting Director Andrea Lucas warned employers not to use the data to take...more
On April 29, 2025, President Donald Trump completed his first one hundred days of his second term in office. During this time, the president issued numerous executive orders (EOs) and implemented actions that significantly...more
5/5/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
NCAA ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Title IX ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration ,
Workplace Safety
On April 24, 2025, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire largely blocked the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding for schools that refuse to drop diversity, equity, and...more
5/1/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Colleges ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Dear Colleague Letter ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
First Amendment ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Public Schools ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Title VI ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
On April 15, 2025, a group of former U.S. Department of Labor officials issued an “open letter” urging federal contractors to continue voluntary diversity practices, including conducting self-assessments, despite the Trump...more
4/16/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Non-Discrimination Rules ,
OFCCP ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
On April 4, 2025, the final day of Georgia’s legislative session, Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a “religious liberty” bill that will strengthen protections for the free exercise of religion by prohibiting state and...more
On April 3, 2025, a group of former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) officials issued a statement defending specific employer diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in response to technical...more
On March 27, 2025, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from enforcing portions of two provisions in President Donald Trump’s...more
On March 14, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the government’s request to stay a Maryland federal judge’s nationwide preliminary injunction that had blocked key portions of the president’s...more
On March 3, 2025, a federal judge in Maryland refused to halt a preliminary injunction blocking key parts of two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders (EO) seeking to eliminate “illegal” diversity, equity, and...more
3/4/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Due Process ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Executive Orders ,
Fifth Amendment ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Motion To Stay ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Trump Administration
On February 26, 2025, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson directed the agency to form a new “Joint Labor Task Force” that will focus on enforcing federal antitrust laws to protect competition in labor...more
While the Trump administration appeals a recent federal court ruling that blocked enforcement of key parts of two executive orders (EO) to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives, the...more
A federal judge in Maryland has preliminarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing key provisions of the recent executive orders (EO) to eliminate “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and...more
2/24/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Private Sector ,
Trump Administration
Executive Order (EO) 14173 “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” creates new obligations that could carry significant risks for any organization doing business with the United States federal...more
2/13/2025
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
OFCCP ,
Subcontractors ,
Whistleblowers
The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive orders (EOs) to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives after a group of diversity officers,...more
2/11/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Executive Orders ,
First Amendment ,
Pending Litigation
As the life sciences industry prepares for 2025, employers must navigate a landscape marked by evolving employment laws, heightened pay transparency requirements, and ongoing scrutiny of workplace diversity, equity, and...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit blocked a contest by a venture capital fund that provided grants and other benefits to black women-owned businesses, finding the contest is likely to unlawfully discriminate...more
6/10/2024
/ Article III ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
First Amendment ,
Grants ,
Minority-Owned Businesses ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Race Discrimination ,
Standing ,
Title VII ,
Venture Capital ,
Women-Owned Businesses
On March 28, 2024, the White House unveiled revisions to the federal statistical standards for race and ethnicity data collection for federal agencies, adding a new category and requiring a combined race and ethnicity...more
4/1/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Comment Period ,
Compliance ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Ethnicity ,
Native American Issues ,
OFCCP ,
OMB ,
Public Agencies ,
Public Employees ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Tribal Employees
On March 4, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down a part of a politically charged Florida law known as the “Stop WOKE Act” that sought to restrict workplace training on certain diversity,...more
3/15/2024
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Free Speech ,
New Legislation ,
Racial Bias ,
Stop Woke Act ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Title VII
The National Football League’s (NFL) “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to consider minority candidates when filling certain coaching vacancies, has been considered a model for diverse slate hiring policies, but it is now in...more
3/1/2024
/ Athletes ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coaches ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Football ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Minorities ,
NFL ,
Recruitment Policies ,
SCOTUS ,
Sports ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Title VII
The Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a case alleging that facially race-neutral admissions criteria at a selective Virginia public high school were unlawfully intended to strike a racial balance, leaving...more
2/23/2024
/ Admissions ,
Affirmative Action ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Equal Protection ,
Legal History ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Public Schools ,
Racial Bias ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College
States across the United States have been taking up or passing laws to prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and programming in public schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions, but a bill...more
With high-profile challenges to employer diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and “reverse discrimination” claims on the rise, a case reinforcing the circuit split over whether plaintiffs from a “majority” group...more
1/4/2024
/ Appellate Courts ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Evidence ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII
During recent oral arguments in a case that could shift the balance in employment discrimination cases and impact employer diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives,...more
The Supreme Court of the United States’ recent decision to strike down affirmative action admissions policies in higher education is having significant indirect consequences for private employers and their diversity, equity,...more
8/10/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
SCOTUS ,
State Attorneys General ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Title VII
In 1980, Texas became the first state in the United States to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday, and today all 50 states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or...more