Trump's anti-corporate DEI campaign faces high legal hurdles [View all]

Source: Reuters

December 23, 2025 6:10 AM EST Updated 8 mins ago


WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-discrimination enforcement agency has a high bar to clear to prove companies' diversity, equity and inclusion policies run afoul of the law, according to interviews with more than a dozen corporate legal and compliance experts.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under new Chair Andrea Lucas is making a sharp pivot towards what she calls "a more conservative view of civil rights", like prioritizing cases of discrimination against white men. That shift, coupled with the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to dismantle DEI programs, is set to collide with the boundaries of U.S. discrimination law, long a cornerstone of workplace equality.

The move signals a broader campaign to redefine the meaning of workplace fairness, setting up a potential clash with corporate America, which has widely adopted DEI measures to hire and retain diverse talent.

Lucas plans to open inquiries into corporate DEI practices to find whether employers made race or sex-based decisions, she told Reuters in an exclusive interview last week. Specifically, she called for submissions of possible instances of discrimination against white men by corporate DEI practices. But a program is not illegal just because the administration says so, said former EEOC Chair Jenny Yang. The agency still has to build a case and convince the courts that a company's programs violate discrimination law.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trumps-anti-corporate-dei-campaign-faces-high-legal-hurdles-2025-12-23/