Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell is leading a counterattack against President Donald Trump’s frontal assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the country’s workplaces.

Joined by the AGs of 15 other states, Campbell has issued “Multi-State Guidance Concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Employment Initiatives” in response to Trump’s Jan. 21 issuance of Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”

The executive order declares it “the policy of the United States to protect the civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard work.”

The EO goes on to “order all executive departments and agencies to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements. I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”

Campbell and the other AGs shot back in their guidance that the order “states what is already the law — that discrimination is illegal — but then conflates unlawful preferences in hiring and promotion with sound and lawful best practices for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce. This conflation is inaccurate and misleading. Policies and practices that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are not the same as preferences in individual hiring and promotion decisions that have been found to be unlawful.”

The AGs argue that employment policies incorporating DEI “best practices” serve to insulate employers from legal exposure.

“Employment policies incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility best practices are not only compliant with state and federal civil rights laws, but they also help to reduce litigation risk by affirmatively protecting against discriminatory conduct that violates the law,” the guidance states. “When companies have such policies, employees are less likely to be subjected to unlawful discrimination, and companies are less likely to be held liable for such discriminatory conduct.”

The order

Trump’s order rests on the premise that DEI or DEIA (“diversity, equity, inclusion & accessibility”) programs often run afoul of federal civil rights laws by encouraging race- and gender-based decisions in hiring, job promotion and discipline.

“Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,” the order states.

In supporting anti-DEI measures to be undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education, the executive order cites the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 decision Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard. A six-justice majority of the court held that the schools’ use of racial preferences to achieve diversity goals violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

But the AGs’ guidance takes the stance that Students for Fair Admissions applies to the admissions policies of colleges and universities that receive federal funding and doesn’t “have any application to properly designed and implemented diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives in the workplace.”

Joining Campbell in the issuance of the guidance are AGs from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The AGs outline a number of best practices for legally compliant DEI programs. For example, the guidance identifies best practices for recruitment and hiring as including the use of “panel interviews, which ensure that multiple people are involved in a hiring or promotion recommendation, helping to eliminate bias in the hiring process, and to ensure fair and objective decisions.”

In terms of professional development and retention, the guidance encourages the creation of “Employee Resource Groups” to create a “supportive space” where employees of particular backgrounds “feel valued and heard.”

“When employees feel that their identity is recognized and supported within the organization, they’re more likely to stay long-term,” the guidance states.

The AGs also tout training on subjects such as unconscious bias, inclusive leadership and disability awareness.