On February 5, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi disseminated an internal memo within the Department of Justice (DOJ). The memo, Ending Illegal DEI and DEIA Discrimination and Preferences, explained that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will “investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector and in educational institutions that receive federal funds.”
The memo is intended to only encompass programs, initiatives, or policies that “discriminate, exclude, or divide individuals based on race or sex.” The memo makes clear it does not prohibit “educational, cultural, or historical observances . . . that celebrate diversity, recognize historical contributions, and promote awareness without engaging in exclusion of discrimination,” such as Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or similar events.
Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, signed by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025, requires the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit a joint report that includes recommendations to enforce federal civil-rights laws and “other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences” within 120 days.
Consistent with Executive Order 14173, the DOJ memo requires the Civil Rights Division and Office of Legal Policy to submit a report discussing such recommendations and “other appropriate measures” by March 1, 2025.
The report to the Associate Attorney General must address a number of items, including a list of “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI and DEIA practitioners in each sector of concern” within the DOJ’s jurisdiction. The report must also include a plan identifying specific measures “to deter the use of DEI and DEIA programs or principles that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences, including proposals for criminal investigations and for up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of entities that meet” criteria in Executive Order 14173, which include publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of $500 million or more, state and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over $1 billion. In addition, the Civil Rights Division and Office of Legal Policy must also recommend other approaches “to end illegal DEI and DEIA discrimination and preferences and to comply with all federal civil-rights laws” within the private sector.
Finally, the memo notes that the DOJ, working alongside the Department of Education, plans to issue directions, and the Civil Rights Division would pursue actions, “regarding the measures and practices required to comply with” the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which held that educational agencies, colleges, and universities that received federal funds could not “treat some students worse than others in part because of race.”
Please reach out to a Sheppard Mullin Labor and Employment attorney with any questions you may have.
Please visit our Executive Actions Tracker for an up-to-date, comprehensive list, including summaries and in-depth analysis, of the executive orders issued under the Trump administration. We are continuing to update the tracker as new orders are released and new analysis becomes available.