Federal Employees File Anti-DEI Class Action Lawsuit Claiming They Were Fired For Not Being White Men

American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, D.C., private law firms, and Democracy Forward have filed a lawsuit on behalf of federal employees who argue they were unlawfully terminated as part of President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI purge — and not being white men, NBC News reports. 

Trump’s controversial executive order to terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the federal level resulted in thousands of employees being handed pink slips, including some who weren’t involved in DEI-related activities or simply participated in DEI training or an employee resource group. Former employees filed the complaint accusing the order of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by singling out federal workers who don’t identify as white men for hostility, suspicion, job interference, and termination. 

Employees filed the complaint with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, which protects federal employees against abuses such as politically motivated terminations. They also allege that the mass firings violate their First Amendment rights for perceived political stances. ACLU-DC Legal Director Scott Michelman says the president’s moves prove his true agenda.

“Targeting hard-working civil servants because they are associated with an idea the government dislikes violates the First Amendment. President Trump can’t drag us back to a dark chapter in history where the government targeted people simply for their views or values,” Michelman said, according to The Grio. 

“The decision to go after people for DEI work they are no longer doing shows the administration’s true motive: to punish employees who they think hold values that clash with the president’s extremist agenda.”

While it is unclear how many people joined the class action complaint, several other employees, like Sherrell Pyatt, have plans to tap in. Currently, on administrative leave from her job at the Department of Homeland Security, Pyatt is one of several employees who argue there was a target on their backs due to suspected political affiliations or being discriminated against because of their gender or race.

“The team that I belong to that was put on administrative leave was majority women and majority people of color,” she said. 

“It’s disheartening. I’m an educated woman. I’m a hard worker. I do consider myself an expert in my areas of work, and so to know that all of that could be overlooked is unfortunate and a disservice to the American public.”

Former civil rights attorney Sheria Smith, who was let go by the Department of Education, said she experienced bias throughout her tenure and saw it coming.

“Earlier in the year, in January, they started putting people on leave for suspected DEI activity; 77 of our members were placed on leave, and none of those people actually worked in diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Smith recalls. 

“They were loan officers, they were IT professionals, they were civil rights attorneys, but of the 77, 70 of them were women, and of the 77, 30 of them were Black…To this day, the agency has not explained to us why they were placed on leave, what suspected DEI activity they actually had.”

In addition to the complaint, Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders are being challenged in lawsuits filed in federal court. Along with two other nonprofits, the National Urban League sued the President and the Office of Management and Budget, arguing the orders “expressly disadvantage people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities who face unfair disadvantages or inequalities by eliminating and delegitimizing targeted efforts that were specifically created to help them overcome the systemic discrimination that produced those disadvantages and inequalities.”

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