Obama-nominated judge deals major blow to Trump's Critical Race Theory ban

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s executive order against  “diversity training” initiatives among federal government agencies and contractors, which include colleges and universities. 

On Dec. 22, U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of California Beth Labson Freeman, nominated by  former President Barack Obama in 2013, said that Trump’s order offers “a gross mischaracterization of the speech Plaintiffs want to express and an insult to their work of addressing discrimination and injustice towards historically underserved communities.”

Freeman, an Obama appointee, issued a nationwide preliminary injunction and asserted that the plaintiffs “have demonstrated a likelihood of success in proving violations of their constitutional rights.”

The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the Diversity Center of Santa Cruz, as well as a number of “non-profit community organizations and consultants serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender... community and people living with the human immunodeficiency virus.”

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The Trump administration’s September 22 executive order, entitled, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” noted concern over the notion that America is “grounded in hierarchies based on collective social and political identities rather than in the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual.”

The executive order says that “this ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.”

The executive order instructed agencies “not to allow grant funds” for such training and said that “federal contractors will not be permitted to inculcate such views in their employees.”

[RELATED: Ithaca College student newspaper removes op-ed about diversity in GOP]

The order qualifies that federal departments and contractors “should, of course, continue to foster environments devoid of hostility grounded in race, sex, and other federally protected characteristics,” although “training like that discussed above perpetuates racial stereotypes and division and can use subtle coercive pressure to ensure conformity of viewpoint.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft