Global Courant
Last month’s Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in higher education could dismantle diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs in corporate America, experts say.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision that colleges and universities could not factor race considerations into their admissions process, effectively banning what’s known as affirmative action and overturning previous legal precedents that allowed it.
The decision has sparked debate about whether and how it could affect other sectors of public life, including corporate and corporate recruiting and promotion practices.
Fox News Digital spoke to experts who say the decision could mean companies could be held liable for “woke-ism” in DEI programs and policies.
In a decision Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions programs. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, says the case could expose companies that prioritize race in hiring decisions to violations of the Civil Rights Act.
“That fig leaf is now gone. There is no question that affirmative action, race-based recruiting and promotion programs violate the Civil Rights Act,” Hild said.
“And you no longer even have this potential loophole for affirmative action. I think you will see a lot of companies, their legal compliance officers, start looking at what their DEI departments are doing and probably tell them to cut it off,” he said.
“I think you’ll see a lot of companies get rid of even their DEI divisions because the philosophy surrounding the DEI is almost directly against the law to begin with,” he added.
Consumer’s Research’s Will Hild says the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision could force companies to get rid of DEI divisions. (Adobe stock)
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Hild said that while most of the legal precedents for affirmative action involved the higher educated, companies still relied on that case law to justify certain DEI practices.
“This is going to bring wind to groups like mine and others that are focused on getting ‘woke-ism’ out of corporate America. “They don’t even have this fig leaf of this pre-Harvard jurisprudence anymore,” Hild said.
Hild said that in 2020-2022 he saw companies engage in “promotional programs” that were “explicitly race-based” in some cases. Now those companies could be exposed to lawsuits.
“And they were already playing with fire there, I think, and invited a pretty serious lawsuit. Now there’s not even a legal argument that they can engage in this kind of behavior.” Hild said.
The Supreme Court of the United States. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“If they do it explicitly, it becomes a very fast and negative thing for them,” Hild said.
“And if they do it quietly, I think they’re playing with fire. If it comes out in emails or communications that maybe they didn’t say it during the interview, but they were quietly discriminating within the company, they’re not going to get a legal defense at this point that their goals were noble and so it’s okay. It’s downright illegal now,” he said.
Gene Hamilton, general counsel for America First Legal, said the Supreme Court’s decision is “the writing on the wall” for businesses.
“If I were advising major corporations and law schools and medical schools and everything else, I would tell them to get out of the business of racial preferences and out of the business of racial quotas immediately,” Hamilton said.
“Because what we see is the writing on the wall. We see the fact that there is no tolerance among the Supreme Court majority for this kind of divisive program,” he said.
“Be careful,” warned Hamilton, “there’s a lot of employer liability in this space.”
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Judge Clarence Thomas said the court’s decision “sees the colleges’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure some racial mix in their new classes.”
“Individuals are the sum total of their unique experiences, challenges and achievements. It’s not about the barriers they face, but how they choose to face them. And their race isn’t to blame for anything — good or bad — that happens in their lives,” said Thomas. “A contradictory, myopic worldview based on the skin color of individuals to the complete exclusion of their personal choices is nothing short of racial determinism.”
Brianna Herlihy is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
