Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a group of 18 other state attorneys general in filing a public comment letter in opposition to the Department of Commerce’s “Business Diversity Principles” proposal.
The proposal seeks to carry out President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, by advancing “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the private sector.”
Specifically, the proposal would push businesses across the nation to “strive to meet diversity targets in their long-term workforce plans” and assess DEIA performance using “demographic data across all levels and departments.”
“We endorse the value of promoting meaningful diversity of experience, thought, and background among the public- and private-sector workforce. But race is both a poor and unlawful proxy for achieving that end,” the attorneys general wrote in a public comment letter to the Department of Commerce.
The coalition of attorneys general argue the proposal is unlawful for the follow three reasons:
First, the Commerce Department’s proposed race-based employment policies violate the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
Second, race-based employment decision-making violates Title VII and related civil-rights laws.
Third, the discrimination that “cannot be done directly” under governing law also “cannot be done indirectly” through end-run means consciously aimed at satisfying racial targets.
The attorneys general concluded the public comment letter by vowing to continue to oppose measures—like the Department’s proposed Business Diversity Principles—that “perpetuate unlawful treatment of individuals on the basis of race.”
“The federal Department of Commerce needs to recognize it’s not legal to treat people differently because of the color of their skin,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “We’re warning the Department that its proposed ‘Business Diversity Principles’ guidance violates the law, promotes racial discrimination, and would lead our country backward.”
Attorneys General from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia joined Skrmetti in submitting the public comment letter.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Attny Gen Jonathan Skrmetti” by TN Attny Gen Office.
