Constitutionally suspect

This memo from a group of lawyers contains brief, eminently readable, and plainly argued context for why the new administration’s targeting of DEIJ programs doesn’t change the underlying legality of those programs nor does it require organizations to proactively eliminate those programs or to scrub their websites of mention of them. The memo is oriented towards universities but reads (to this non-lawyer, at least) like the kind of argument that would also apply to companies both large and small. Perhaps most critically, it points out that the January 20th executive order “concedes that DEI initiatives are not inherently unlawful,” and that the order “is constitutionally suspect because it appears to rest on pernicious stereotypes that presume the intellectual inferiority of women and Black people.” To me, that’s the strongest counter to anyone who says that the order compels an organization to jettison it’s DEIJ programs: to comply with the order is to reinforce those pernicious stereotypes. Anyone who chooses compliance should be reminded of that, loudly and persistently.