Trump and GOP are ‘overreading’ a landmark Supreme Court decision as they target DEI, legal experts argue

As part of a rapidly escalating war on corporate and government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, President Donald Trump’s administration and his allies are relying heavily on a two-year-old Supreme Court precedent that says virtually nothing about diversity in the workplace.

As part of a rapidly escalating war on corporate and government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, President Donald Trump’s administration and allies are relying heavily on a two-year-old Supreme Court precedent that says virtually nothing about diversity in the workplace. A series of lawsuits and threatening letters filed after Trump took office a month ago have cited the landmark 2023 decision that gutted affirmative action on college campuses — and have suggested that the ruling also requires companies to end their DEI programs. “The Supreme Court said it best: ‘Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,’” Republican attorneys general from 19 states wrote to Costco recently, urging the retail giant to suspend its diversity efforts. “For the good of its employees, investors, and customers, Costco should ‘do the right thing’ by following the law and repealing its DEI policies.” But legal experts say that the notion that the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard spells out rules for the private sector is wishful thinking on the part of DEI critics. Critics of DEI are “kind of deliberately overreading the decision in order to engage in a lot of bluster and threats,” said David Glasgow, a New York University law professor and executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. “The case didn’t say anything about private employment or DEI at all,” said Brent Siler, a labor lawyer at the Adams and Reese law firm. “DEI is not illegal, in and of itself, though some of it could be.”