Biden-appointed judge issues injunction to bar Trump administration from ending DEI grants
A Biden-appointed federal judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against President Trump's anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) executive orders.
On Feb. 21, Judge Adam Abelson of Maryland temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending 'equity-related' federal grants.
A Biden-appointed federal judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against President Trump’s anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) executive orders.
On Feb. 21, Judge Adam Abelson of Maryland temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending “equity-related” federal grants.
The injunction blocks portions of Trump’s executive orders on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” and ”Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
Abelson writes that terms like DEI in the orders are vague, and such efforts to limit DEI raise concerns over “viewpoint discrimination.”
”[E]nsuring equity, diversity, and inclusion has long been a goal, and at least in some contexts arguably a requirement, of federal anti-discrimination law,” he states. ”But the administration has declared ‘DEI’ to be henceforth ‘illegal,’ has announced it will be terminating all ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts’—whatever the administration might decide that means—and has made ‘practitioners’ of what the government considers ‘DEI’ the targets of a ‘strategic enforcement plan.’”’
”But the Challenged Orders do not define any of the operative terms, such as ‘DEI,’ ‘equity-related,’ ‘promoting DEI,’ ‘illegal DEI,’ ‘illegal DEI and DEIA policies,’ or ‘illegal discrimination or preferences,’ ... let alone identify the types of programs or policies the administration considers ‘illegal,’” he adds.
This is not the first time a federal judge has blocked President Trump’s recent executive orders.
On Friday, Judge Lauren King issued a temporary injunction to block the administration from removing federal funding from institutions that offer “gender-affirming care” to children.