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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today, as part of a coalition of 17 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief supporting a legal challenge to two of President Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives.
The coalition of attorneys general filed their brief in Chicago Women in Trades v. Trump before the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) is a nonprofit organization that helps women overcome discrimination, harassment, and other obstacles to entering and staying in skilled trade professions. CWIT challenged multiple provisions in the executive orders, asserting that they unlawfully threaten its federal funding and its First Amendment rights, including a requirement that recipients of federal grants and contracts certify they do not operate any “programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.” The Trump administration has not defined critical terms in the executive orders, including which diversity, equity, and inclusion practices it views as illegal discrimination.
“These executive orders force Maryland's state agencies and nonprofits into an impossible situation – either end programs that promote fairness and equal opportunity, or lose the federal funding they need to serve our communities,” said Attorney General Brown. “These poorly defined mandates threaten to roll back progress on workplace fairness and equal opportunity that benefits all Marylanders.”
In its brief, the coalition maintains that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs are lawful and beneficial. In fact, many such programs ensure compliance with federal civil rights statutes. The attorneys general also explain how the challenged provisions in the executive orders harm the states, as well as their residents and businesses, by denying them the many valuable benefits associated with workplaces, schools and communities that have adopted practices related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
A lower court granted the CWIT a partial preliminary injunction, but the administration appealed. The coalition is urging the appeals court to uphold the injunction.
In filing the brief, Attorney General Brown was joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
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