Judge Rules Trump’s Anti-DEI Order for Contractors Can Stand, Clarifies Scope

President Donald Trump’s executive order related to DEI language in federal contracts can stand, but it only prohibits already-illegal discrimination, a judge ruled.

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President Donald Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on college campuses has landed another win in court.

A federal judge in Maryland ruled last week that Trump’s March executive order threatening to cancel or suspend federal contracts that included “DEI language” can stand. The order also requires that every contract certify the contracted organization is free of “racially discriminatory DEI activities.”

Although Judge Adam B. Abelson ruled against the higher education leaders who sued (including national groups that represent faculty and diversity officers), the advocates said in a joint statement that his decision provides crucial clarity, affirming that Trump’s executive order only prohibits already-illegal discrimination.  

The plaintiffs had argued that the order was overly broad and would cause a chilling effect, calling it a violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. They expressed worry that it would prevent research on things like the impact of diseases on different racial groups and would otherwise harm federal contractors around the country.

In his decision, Abelson wrote that “racially discriminatory DEI activities” could narrowly be interpreted as intentional illegal discrimination, or disparate treatment based on a protected identity, and that the order wouldn’t prevent such research. He said the plaintiffs didn’t make strong enough arguments for him to block it and passed the case back down to a lower court. Abelson was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2024. 

The plaintiffs came from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the United Academics of Maryland–University of Maryland, College Park. They filed the lawsuit alongside two construction contracting groups. In a joint statement following the decision, they wrote that the ruling gave much-needed clarity to federal contractors across the country. 

“Federal contractors and subcontractors are crucial to the safe, effective and efficient functioning of the country and should not have to fear that their lawful efforts to support diversity, equity and inclusion will put them at risk of political prosecution by the Trump-Vance administration,” the group wrote. “Today’s ruling gives much-needed reassurance to thousands of federal contractors and subcontractors across the country.”