By Staff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
On the heels of President Donald Trump’s decision to blame—without evidence—anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices for Jan. 29’s fatal aircraft crash in Washington, D.C., a coalition of educators and civic leaders have filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.
“In the United States,” the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland, reads, “there is no king.”
U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland. Photograph by Eli Pousson, 2019 May 10. Wikimedia Commons.
“In his crusade to erase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility from our country, President Trump cannot usurp Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, nor can he silence those who disagree with him by threatening them with the loss of federal funds and other enforcement action,” the lawsuit continues.
The legal suit names Trump, the National Science Foundation, the country’s Office of Management and Budget, and nine government departments and those departments’ heads.
Signed on the eve of his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump’s orders take aim at DEI hiring policies, like a 60-year-old affirmative action hiring requirement for federal contractors and subcontractors.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) and Democracy Forward are serving as the plaintiffs’ legal counsel.
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, said that Trump’s executive orders are meant to incite panic and “suppress, selectively, any idea or expression that isn’t aligned with his own views under the guise of uplifting merit.”
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