Yup.
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to deprive federal funding from programs that incorporate “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that Trump’s policy likely violates the First Amendment because it penalizes private organizations based on their viewpoints. And the judge said the policy is written so vaguely that it chills the free speech of federal contractors concerned they will be punished if they don’t eliminate programs meant to encourage a diverse workforce.
Abelson, a Baltimore-based appointee of former President Joe Biden, said longstanding court precedent bars the federal government from “leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Let’s engage in a simple logic exercise. If the federal government can put DEI requirements into contracts that requires private companies to comply by having DEI programs, then the opposite is equally true. The newly elected federal government can insist that companies that do business with the federal government do not have DEI programs. It does not violate the 1st Amendment because there is nothing that compels a private company to do business with the federal government. Most companies don’t.
Not to mention that discrimination–of ANY sort–is illegal and un-Constitutional in the United States.