WELL, YES: Plaintiffs Challenging Trump’s DEI Order Are Trying To Game The Judicial System.
On February 21, 2024, Judge Adam Abelson, a Joe Biden appointee, entered a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs. In that injunction, Judge Abelson held the Trump Administration could not “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards, contracts or obligations . . . or change the terms of any Current Obligation,” based on the anti-DEI executive orders. The preliminary injunction further prohibited the Trump Administration from requiring any recipient of federal funds to certify in a grant or contract “that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal antidiscrimination laws.” Finally, the court enjoined the Trump Administration from taking any enforcement actions against grantees who maintain DEI programs in violation of the certification.
Judge Abelson later clarified that his preliminary injunction applied broadly and beyond the named defendants: The preliminary injunction applies to and binds all “federal executive branch agencies, departments, and commissions, and their heads, officers, agents, and subdivisions,” the court explained in a supplemental order earlier this month.
The Trump Administration promptly appealed the preliminary injunction while simultaneously seeking a stay from Judge Abelson and from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Abelson refused to stay the preliminary injunction but on March 14, 2024, the Fourth Circuit granted the stay, stating, “we agree with the government that it has satisfied the factors for a stay under Nken v. Holder . . .”
The stay of the lower court’s injunction means that the Trump Administration can continue to implement the president’s executive orders by terminating DEI grants, mandating contractors and grantees certify they will not violate federal anti-discrimination law with DEI programs, and enforcing those certifications. The stay, however, means much more: It means that the Trump Administration is very likely to win on appeal.
Read the whole thing — and I hope Glenn weighs in on this soon.