President-elect Donald Trump’s statements and appointees have indicated an interest in ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government while challenging their use in private organizations.
If his first term is any indication, he will likely use executive orders to end the promotion of DEI or critical race theory within federal agencies. Specifically, he could use the federal government to reform education, bar diversity training within the federal government, and use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to sue over perceived reverse discrimination in employment and college admissions.
Dhillon graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She leads The Dhillon Law Group and served as a legal adviser for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
Dhillon’s firm represented James Damore, the Google employee who alleged that the company had a bias against white men and conservatives.
John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told The Epoch Times that “Harmeet—who, if confirmed, would be the first Indian-American and Sikh American to serve as Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division—is a very experienced lawyer who cares deeply about America and America’s future.”
Regarding DEI, he said, “Harmeet will follow the law and existing Supreme Court precedent.”
Shu then referred to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District. No. 1, which questioned a school district’s decision to use race as a factor in assigning students to particular schools.
Dhillon’s and Hegseth’s nominations came after years of controversy surrounding those types of policies within corporations and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.
President Joe Biden quickly revoked that executive order when he entered office in 2021.
Trump also vowed to cut federal funding for schools pushing critical race theory and to favor school districts that adopt a parental bill of rights with curriculum transparency.
“Policies eradicating DEI programming and curricula are not only unlawful; they also actively undermine students’ ability to thrive,” the group said in a memo on its expectations for Trump’s second term.
The ACLU said the Trump administration’s “ultimate goal would be the eradication of all programs designed to address profound and persistent inequalities in American life – with the effect of further entrenching, and indeed worsening, systemic inequalities in access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.”
More specifically, the ACLU warned about the prospect of Trump’s continuing reported efforts from his first term to alter enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination by recipients of federal funding, by no longer focusing on instances where the practice at issue had a “disparate impact” on particular groups.
Eliminating DEI may involve addressing the executive system and its regulations, a task that Trump is likely to approach through his advisers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a proposed presidential advisory commission.
The ending of that precedent, by overturning the Chevron deference doctrine, was supported by advocates of deregulation, but it doesn’t necessarily favor across-the-board efforts at ending regulations. Instead, it forces courts to make determinations about the law rather than deferring to agencies.
