Civil rights groups ask court to overturn Donald Trump's anti-diversity, transgender orders
WASHINGTON – Three civil-rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn President Donald Trump’s executive orders by arguing they would lose federal funding under the directives blocking spending on organizations with diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago contend the administration is violating their rights to free speech and due process by engaging in intentional discrimination, according to the lawsuit filed by Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal.
“These orders are a blatant attempt to cement racial discrimination and other inequities at every level of society, with the goal of hoarding power and influence among the wealthy and among an extremist minority,” Janai Nelson, president of the Legal Defense Fund, told reporters at a Wednesday press conference.
The three executive orders being challenged in the lawsuit terminate equity-related grants, forbid federally funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and from recognizing the existence of transgender people.
Trump signed the first anti-DEI order his first day in office Jan. 20 to fire all federal workers in diversity programs the order labeled discriminatory.
"The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government,” the order reads. “The injection of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy."
The groups that rely heavily on federal funding said the orders would severely limit health services such as HIV treatment, fair housing, equal employment opportunities and affordable credit.
“These executive orders are malicious, unlawful, vague and unconstitutional,” Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, told reporters.
Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal’s HIV project director, said the gender ideology order repudiates the existence of transgender people and hurts their ability to get identity documents, housing and health care.
“These orders pose an existential threat to transgender people and to the organizations that offer them shelter, community and live-saving services,” Abrigo told reporters. “Public health should never be politicized.”
The National Urban League has 19 federal grants totaling $62 million and accounting for one-third of its annual budget, according to the lawsuit.
The National Fair Housing Alliance expected to received $1.3 million during the current fiscal year, which accounts for about one-sixth of its budget, and $2.5 million next year for more than one-fourth of its budget in federal funding, according to the lawsuit.
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago receives about $34.8 million in federal funding per year, for more than 80% of its budget, according to the lawsuit. Losing the funding would eliminate services for nearly 7,000 people, according to the lawsuit.
(This story has been updated to include the latest figures the groups receive in federal funding.)