Nineteen states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration to stop the implementation of a March 2026 executive order requiring federal agencies to bar contractors from engaging in “racially discriminatory DEI activities.”
The new requirements are unclear and fail to sufficiently describe what they prohibit, the lawsuit claims. Neither the executive order nor the agencies “have provided any useful explanation of whether or how the contract term imposes requirements different from existing provisions of law,” according to the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
The executive order requires contractors to agree ...