The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Minnesota challenging the state’s requirement that all state agencies implement sex- and race-based affirmative action plans and consider “affirmative action goals on all staffing and personnel decisions.”
Minnesota’s affirmative action program directs agencies to engage in employment practices that “balance” the sex and race composition of its workforce with the civilian labor force.
“From suing over sanctuary city policies to a wide-ranging fraud investigation, today’s lawsuit is the Department of Justice’s latest effort to bring Minnesota into compliance with federal law,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Making hiring decisions based on immutable characteristics like race and sex is simple discrimination, and the Trump Administration has no tolerance for such DEI policies.”
Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s civil rights division said: “For far too long, courts have allowed employers to discriminate based on race and sex when it is packaged as ‘affirmative action.’
“The Supreme Court put an end to using race as a factor in college admissions through its Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision. This case is the next logical step. Title VII protects all people from race and sex discrimination in employment. There is no exception that allows discrimination against employees who aren’t considered ‘underrepresented.’”
U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen for the District of Minnesota indicated: “Minnesotans already had to see their state officials let criminals brazenly walk off with over a billion taxpayer dollars. Now they see those same officials abusing their power by systematically and unlawfully branding jobseekers as the wrong race or sex.”
The complaint states: “Because staffing is a zero-sum game, when Minnesota gives preferences to employees or prospective employees on the basis of their race, color, national origin, and sex, it inevitably and necessarily discriminates against other employees or prospective employees because of their race, color, national origin, and sex.”
Reaction on X was generally not kind to Bondi, with comments including:
“Pam. Do we not have anything better to do?”
“Are you arresting Bill and Hillary Clinton for not showing up to their depositions today?”
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