Trump on Tuesday rescinded a 1965 executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that required companies doing contract work for the federal government to institute “affirmative action” programs.
Trump, citing his duty as president to ensure civil rights laws are enforced, said in his executive order that such policies have resulted in “disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”
This was part of Trump’s broader EO that eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government. The EO also specifically refers to Executive Order 11246 (Equal Employment Opportunity). Federal contractors may continue to comply with the original EO for the next 90 days.
The media is unsurprisingly calling this a rollback of civil rights or “anti-discrimination power,” but like DEI, affirmative action was always used to promote people based on race and not merit.
The Supreme Court in 2023 issued a landmark ruling stating that affirmative action policies – specifically those at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina – violated the law and caused discrimination rather than prevented it.
Harvard was found to have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, while UNC was found to have violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, The Daily Wire previously reported.
