Conservative lawsuits seek to roll back diversity programs beyond colleges

Since the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions, conservative groups have filed dozens of lawsuits aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion programs across corporations, law firms, health care, the arts and private nonprofits. Plaintiffs have forced changes or settlements in cases ranging from a venture capital contest that gave $20,000 grants to Black women entrepreneurs to a McDonald’s scholarship that stopped limiting awards to students with a Hispanic parent, and a white theatergoer’s suit against an Off Broadway theater that offered discounted tickets to people of color.

Litigants and lawyers say the goal is to extend the logic of the college ruling into other areas of American life. Some conservative attorneys are invoking Reconstruction-era statutes such as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to challenge programs they view as race-based.

Dan Lennington of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said the strategy follows the view that "the air war has been won," and called the effort one of seeking neutrality rather than favoring any group. Section 1981, adopted after the Civil War to protect the contract rights of formerly enslaved Black people, is being litigated as protecting white people as well, an interpretation the Supreme Court upheld about 50 years ago and that conservative lawyers are now reviving.

affirmative action college admissions, d.e.i. programs, american alliance for equal rights, edward blum, section 1981 lawsuits, ku klux klan act, playwrights horizons lawsuit, mcdonald's scholarship, fearless fund grants, bipoc night, wisconsin institute for law and liberty, reconstruction-era statutes