Groups Sue Over Trump’s Executive Orders Aimed at DEI and Transgender Ideology

The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House, home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Washington on Feb. 19, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A coalition of activist groups is suing the federal government over President Donald Trump’s executive orders that curtail the government’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and reject transgender ideology.

The new lawsuit, known as National Urban League v. Trump, was filed on Feb. 19 with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Loren AliKhan was assigned to the case.

The plaintiffs—the National Urban League, National Fair Housing Alliance, and AIDS Foundation of Chicago—seek to block the executive orders, arguing that they violate federal law and the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The plaintiff nonprofit groups receive funding from the federal government “in the form of grants and/or contracts” that allow them to provide services to “people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities,” that is in jeopardy because of three executive orders that Trump signed in his first week back in office, according to the legal complaint.

The defendants are Trump, who is being sued in his official capacity as president, various federal agencies, and the officials who run them.

Among the defendants are the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Justice, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The legal complaint was filed by Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund, which is also known as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

National Urban League president Marc Morial said in a statement that the executive orders are an “assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion [which] is discriminatory at best and an attempt at institutionalized economic oppression at its worst.”

“We cannot end the HIV epidemic without working to address health disparities for Black, Latine, LGBTQ+ people, and transgender women,” John Peller, president of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, also said in the statement.

The executive orders “would prohibit us from doing that critical and lifesaving work, putting our clients’ and the broader community’s health at risk,” he added.

Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, said the executive orders are unlawful because the Constitution and civil rights laws “are centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”

“The President cannot undo the Constitution or take away our rights by affixing a signature to an executive order,” she said in the statement.

The new legal action takes aim at Executive Orders 14151, 14168, and 14173.

Trump’s Executive Order 14151 directs the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Justice to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs,” including “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Joe Biden used the DEIA acronym in Executive Order 14035 signed June 25, 2021, which required each federal agency to appoint a chief diversity officer or a diversity and inclusion officer. Accessibility in this context means “federal workspaces must be fully accessible to employees with disabilities,” according to the Access Board’s website.

The Office of Personnel Management was tasked with creating a plan for implementing DEIA across the agencies, the Congressional Research Service reported in June 2024. Trump rescinded Executive Order 14035 when he signed Executive Order 14148 on Jan. 20.

Trump’s Executive Order 14168 states that it is government policy going forward to recognize “two sexes, male and female,” and rejects “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.”

Trump’s Executive Order 14173 targets “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.”

In the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that the executive orders “penalize” them “for expressing viewpoints in support of DEIA and transgender people.”

The orders put the plaintiffs “at significant risk of losing federal funds.”

The orders also “chill and censor their speech, advocacy, and expressive activity based on content and viewpoint,” and put in jeopardy government funding they need “to accomplish their mission-driven work,” according to the complaint.

“While the President may have his viewpoint ... the First Amendment bars him from unduly imposing his viewpoint on federal contractors and grantees so that Plaintiffs are forced to either violate their organizational missions or risk losing the federal funding that is vitally necessary, and even sometimes lifesaving, for the communities they serve.”

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the defendants.

No reply was received by publication time.