Newest Anti-DEI Trump EO Violates First Amendment, Suit Says (1)

President Donald Trump’s executive order directing agencies to cancel federal contracts and subcontracts with businesses that engage in “racially discriminatory” diversity, equity, and inclusion activities violates the First Amendment, a new lawsuit alleges.

The March 26 order is so broad and overly vague that it violates the free speech and association rights of federal contractors and subcontractors by misconstruing the concept of DEI to equate any discussion of race and ethnicity with racially discriminatory DEI activities,” according to the complaint filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

In doing so, the suit said, the president “attempts to use intimidation to coerce” contractors and subcontractors into abandoning their lawful DEI efforts under threat of civil and criminal prosecution and loss of federal business opportunities for noncompliance.

The lawsuit marks an escalation in efforts to curb the administration’s attacks on what it considers illegal DEI in the public and private sectors. Trump and other DEI foes claim that initiatives intended to support historically underrepresented groups are biased against White individuals and provide preferential treatment based on race and gender.

The new litigation—brought by a group representing university professors, contractors, and subcontractors—seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting the president and federal agencies from implementing the EO.

The order specifically requires federal contracts to include a number of clauses in contract agreements, such as mandating companies to renounce race and ethnicity-based DEI efforts, providing the government with access to company records to show compliance, and reporting subcontractors that appear to be in violation.

Noncompliance can result in contracts being terminated or suspended, and businesses being declared ineligible for future business opportunities with the government. Companies could also face potentially costly liability under the government’s novel use of the False Claims Act, a law meant to target fraud by government contractors and federal-funding recipients.

Legal Claims

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Trump’s latest EO “defies both the law and reality.”

“This order is unlawful and would have disastrous consequences for workers doing the public’s business throughout the country, but also for the millions of people who rely on the work and services contractors, subcontractors, their employees, and partners provide,” she said.

Democracy Forward unsuccessfully challenged Trump’s first round of anti-DEI orders last year after the Fourth Circuit in March vacated a district court’s injunction partially blocking them.

The EOs didn’t infringe the First and Fifth Amendment rights of college diversity officers, university professors, and restaurant workers who sued because Trump only indirectly instructed agencies to require challengers’ compliance, a three-judge panel said.

The plaintiffs in the current case include the National Association of Diversity Officers of Higher Education, American Association of University Professors, United Academics of Maryland-University of Maryland, College Park, National Association of Minority Contractors, and the NAMC, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia Chapter.

They claimed the order is unconstitutionally vague because it’s unclear what constitutes racially discriminatory DEI—in areas like recruitment efforts to expand access to opportunities to all, or programming designed to raise awareness of or take steps to avoid racial or ethnic bias—that could lead to contract termination and debarment.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Nat’l Ass’n of Diversity Officers in Higher Educ. v. Trump , D. Md., No. 8:26-cv-01532, complaint filed 4/20/26.