Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity

This order directs federal agencies to eliminate race-conscious requirements attached to a variety of federal regulations, consent orders, and grants directed at states. The order also rescinds Biden Administration EOs that had been the basis for multiple agencies’ policies and guidance focused on “environmental justice,” and the imposition of race, ethnicity, and gender preferences in federal hiring, among federal contractors, and in grant distributions. The order also directs agencies to identify “potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.”

 Likewise, state educational institutions, from public schools to universities, may be investigated if they appear to employ race-conscious practices that run afoul of the 2023 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action. Notably, the Order does not prohibit state or local governments or employees of their educational institutions from “advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful employment or contracting practices prohibited by this order.” Because the order aims to enforce Congressionally-created statutes prohibiting discrimination, rather than impose an agency- or administration-created preference, it is consistent with the practice of federalism.

Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House

January 21, 2025