DEI Executive Orders Back in Effect and ED’s DEI Investigations Move Forward

Thompson Coburn

Lorrie Hargrove , Tres Cleveland

March 18, 2025

President Trump’s two diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) executive orders are back in force, for now.  The two orders are:

Executive Order 14151, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, Executive Order of January 20, 2025, 90 Fed. Reg. 8339 (Jan. 29, 2025) (the “J20 Order”); and

Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, Executive Order of January 21, 2025, 90 Fed. Reg. 8633 (Jan. 31, 2025) (the “J21 Order”) (collectively, the “Orders”).

The Orders warned institutions they could lose access to federal funds if they fail to eliminate illegal DEI initiatives and programming.  This threat has teeth, as Columbia’s pulled funding recently establishes. Administrators worked overtime to determine what compliance with the Orders would require (we offered our own thoughts on this exercise in our January 24 blog post).  That work is once again relevant.

On February 21, 2025, a Maryland federal district court entered a nationwide preliminary injunction, which halted three key aspects of the Orders:

CONTINUE READING