ENDING
ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION AND RESTORING MERIT-BASED OPPORTUNITY EO 1-21-25
By
the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section
1. Purpose. Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect
individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex,
or national origin. These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock
supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As President, I
have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of
all Americans.
Yet
today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
critical and influential institutions of American society, including the
Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical
industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions
of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and
immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called
“diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and
accessibility” (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.
Illegal
DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding
Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they
deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work,
excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and
pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who
deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or
shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.
These
illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women,
and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual
merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs
and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of
government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities.
Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand
the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has
prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.
The
Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The
purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal
preferences and discrimination.
Sec.
2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the
civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence,
and hard work. I therefore order all executive departments and agencies
(agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates,
policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions,
consent orders, and requirements. I further order all agencies to enforce
our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI
preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.
Sec.
3. Terminating Illegal Discrimination in the Federal Government.
(a) The following executive actions are hereby revoked:
(i) Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994 (Federal
Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations);
(ii) Executive Order 13583 of August 18, 2011 (Establishing a
Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in
the Federal Workforce);
(iii) Executive Order 13672 of July 21, 2014 (Further Amendments to
Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government,
and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity); and
(iv) The Presidential Memorandum of October 5, 2016 (Promoting
Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce).
(b)
The Federal contracting process shall be streamlined to enhance speed and
efficiency, reduce costs, and require Federal contractors and subcontractors to
comply with our civil-rights laws. Accordingly:
(i) Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal
Employment Opportunity), is hereby revoked. For 90 days from the date of
this order, Federal contractors may continue to comply with the regulatory
scheme in effect on January 20, 2025.
(ii) The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs within the
Department of Labor shall immediately cease:
(A) Promoting “diversity”;
(B) Holding Federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking
“affirmative action”; and
(C) Allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to
engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference,
religion, or national origin.
(iii) In accordance with Executive Order 13279 of December 12, 2002
(Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and Community Organizations), the
employment, procurement, and contracting practices of Federal contractors and
subcontractors shall not consider race, color, sex, sexual preference,
religion, or national origin in ways that violate the Nation’s civil rights
laws.
(iv) The head of each agency shall include in every contract or
grant award:
(A) A term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to
agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal
anti-discrimination laws is material to the government’s payment decisions for
purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code; and
(B) A term requiring such counterparty or recipient to certify that it
does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal
anti-discrimination laws.
(c)
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with the assistance
of the Attorney General as requested, shall:
(i) Review and revise, as appropriate, all Government-wide
processes, directives, and guidance;
(ii) Excise references to DEI and DEIA principles, under whatever
name they may appear, from Federal acquisition, contracting, grants, and
financial assistance procedures to streamline those procedures, improve speed
and efficiency, lower costs, and comply with civil-rights laws; and
(iii) Terminate all “diversity,” “equity,” “equitable decision-making,”
“equitable deployment of financial and technical assistance,” “advancing
equity,” and like mandates, requirements, programs, or activities, as
appropriate.
Sec.
4. Encouraging the Private Sector to End Illegal DEI Discrimination and
Preferences. (a) The heads of all agencies, with the assistance of
the Attorney General, shall take all appropriate action with respect to the
operations of their agencies to advance in the private sector the policy of
individual initiative, excellence, and hard work identified in section 2 of
this order.
(b) To further inform and advise me so that my Administration may
formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policy, the Attorney General,
within 120 days of this order, in consultation with the heads of relevant
agencies and in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall submit a report to
the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy containing recommendations for
enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to
encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences,
including DEI. The report shall contain a proposed strategic enforcement
plan identifying:
(i) Key sectors of concern within each agency’s jurisdiction;
(ii) The most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in
each sector of concern;
(iii) A plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or
principles (whether specifically denominated “DEI” or otherwise) that
constitute illegal discrimination or preferences. As a part of this plan,
each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations
of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations,
foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and
medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over
1 billion dollars;
(iv) Other strategies to encourage the private sector to end
illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all Federal
civil-rights laws;
(v) Litigation that would be potentially appropriate for
Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest; and
(vi) Potential regulatory action and sub-regulatory guidance.
Sec. 5. Other Actions. Within 120 days of this order, the Attorney
General and the Secretary of Education shall jointly issue guidance to all
State and local educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as well as all
institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in
the Federal student loan assistance program under Title IV of the Higher
Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding the measures and practices
required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and
Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).
Sec.
6. Severability. If any provision of this order, or the application
of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the
remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other
persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Sec.
7. Scope. (a) This order does not apply to lawful Federal or
private-sector employment and contracting preferences for veterans of the U.S.
armed forces or persons protected by the Randolph-Sheppard Act, 20 U.S.C. 107
et seq.
(b) This order does not prevent State or local governments, Federal
contractors, or Federally-funded State and local educational agencies or
institutions of higher education from engaging in First Amendment-protected
speech.
(c) This order does not prohibit persons teaching at a Federally funded
institution of higher education as part of a larger course of academic
instruction from advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful
employment or contracting practices prohibited by this order.
Sec.
8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be
construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department,
agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and
subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to and does not create any right or
benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its
officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE, January 21, 2025.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea
Party Leader
