ARTICLE · 27 FEBRUARY 2025

Client Alert: DEI Executive Orders Injunction: What Grantees Need To Know

Feldesman Leifer

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As readers may be aware, two Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DEI")-related Executive Orders impacting federal contractors and grantees have been challenged in the Federal District Court...

United StatesGovernment, Public Sector

Scott S. Sheffler

As readers may be aware, two Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DEI")-related Executive Orders impacting federal contractors and grantees have been challenged in the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland in the case of National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, et al., v. Trump, et al., civil action case number 25-cv-333.

Current Status

On Friday, February 21, in the course of that litigation, Judge Adam B. Abelson issued a nationwide injunction against implementing key aspects of the following two Executive Orders (EOs):

Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing (Jan 20, 2025), which, in relevant part, asserts that federal agencies are to "terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, . . . all . . . 'equity-related' grants or contracts."

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