U.S. President Donald J. Trump moved swiftly on his campaign promises during his first days in office by rescinding the Biden Administration’s aggressive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives.
These programs, which the administration described as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs,” were predicated on a false narrative of “systemic racism” and had permeated government, higher education, and corporate America. The Biden Administration’s DEI policies violated “the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws”; and discredited and undermined the very Foundation of the American dream rooted in “traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.”
A federal district court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s executive orders on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The Trump Administration appealed, and on February 6, 2026, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that injunction in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump.
The court rejected plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment Due Process argument that the termination provision was unconstitutionally vague, ruling it only “instructed the President’s subordinates to act” within legal limits. Similarly, the court dismissed the First Amendment challenge that the certification provision impermissibly discriminated based on viewpoint.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger issued an executive order on day one of her administration reviving DEI initiatives—programs previously eliminated by her predecessor, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
