{"id":1997482,"date":"2023-08-11T05:44:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T05:46:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:46:05","slug":"big-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court ruling sparks diversity battle in big business."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbig-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1997482&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A New Front in the Battle for Diversity<\/h2>\n<p>A new front has opened up in the battle over diversity as Republican officials target the corporate world and Democrats push back after\u2062 the Supreme Court\u2019s affirmative action\u2064 ruling.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that \u2063effectively ended\u2063 affirmative action in college admissions. \u200cActivists and \u2062GOP officials who long \u2062have disparaged the practice celebrated, and since have turned their\u2064 sights on a new target \u2014 the diversity, equity, \u200cand inclusion programs and hiring practices of big \u200bbusinesses.<\/p>\n<h3>Implications for Corporate DEI Efforts<\/h3>\n<p>While the ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and \u2062Fellows \u200cof Harvard College\u200d pertains directly to higher \u2064education and not the corporate world, it hasn\u2019t stopped\u200d the\u2064 judgment from\u200b opening up questions about corporate DEI \u2064efforts.<\/p>\n<p>For instance,\u200b last month, a group of more than a dozen Republican\u200b attorneys general sent a letter \u200cto the \u200ccountry\u2019s biggest corporations warning of legal consequences over race-based employment preferences.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP state officials told the corporations that discrimination laws could apply even if hiring and promotion practices fall in the bucket of corporate\u200c diversity, \u200bequity, and inclusion initiatives,\u2063 which have become popular \u2064in recent years. The signatories contend that some of the efforts \u2063to secure more minority employees in the workplace equate to a form of discrimination because it could lead to hiring and \u2062promotion decisions\u200b based on race.<\/p>\n<p>Frank Cania, the president and\u200c founder of HR Compliance Experts, said that corporate boardrooms are likely looking at the ruling and push from the right and evaluating what is to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere may be concerns at the corporate level about that ruling being expanded to private business,\u201d Cania told the Washington Examiner. \u201cYou\u200d don\u2019t know how things are going to morph in\u200d the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican lawmakers at the federal level have also set\u200b their \u200bsights on corporate DEI practices in the wake of the affirmative action ruling. Last month, \u200dSen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to the CEO\u200c of Target about its 2020 DEI goal \u2062to invest more money\u200b in black-owned businesses and increase black employees at \u200bthe\u2062 company by 20%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough\u2063 that case focused on colleges, the\u2063 same principles and indeed the plain text of federal \u200blaw also \u2063cover private employers,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cTarget\u2019s DEI program applies the same race-based\u200d criteria to job offers, promotions, and business partnerships, and is similarly prohibited under\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-justice-department-pick-helped-kill-pipeline-favored-by-key-senator\/\" title=\"Biden Justice Department Pick Helped Kill Pipeline Favored by Key Senator\">federal civil rights laws<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greg Hoff, associate counsel of the HR Policy Association, said that the affirmative action ruling doesn\u2019t directly\u2064 apply to corporate DEI initiatives because it deals with different laws and standards of review.<\/p>\n<p>That is because the affirmative \u200caction case dealt with \u200cquestions about Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the\u2063 basis of race, \u200bcolor, or national origin under any program \u2064or\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cornell-erases-racially-segregated-rock-climbing-class-from-website\/\" title=\"Cornell Erases Racially-Segregated Rock Climbing Class From Website\">activity receiving federal financial assistance<\/a>, while Title VII deals with employment discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe courts have never allowed employers \u2064to do what they had been allowing higher education institutions to do for the last 40-plus years,\u201d Hoff told the Washington Examiner. \u201cIt\u2019s completely prohibited\u200c to use race or any \u2064sort of other protected characteristic in an employment\u2062 decision\u200d with very, very few \u2062and very narrow exceptions that are not anything like what was at stake in the\u200c Supreme Court case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But while the ruling has no direct \u201clegal\u201d bearing on employer obligations under Title VII, Hoff said\u200b there will\u2064 still\u200c be implications for \u2063HR \u200bteams and corporate boardrooms because of the ruling. He said there will be increased scrutiny on companies\u2019 hiring practices and employer DEI initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>And with the new Republican push against corporate DEI following the end of affirmative action, Democrats are \u2062already gearing \u2064up \u2063for a \u2064likely contentious fight that could spawn \u2064a flood of lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) responded\u2064 to the Republican letter with her own warning \u2063to the \u2063chief \u200cexecutives of the companies. In\u200d the letter to the CEOs of\u200c the nation\u2019s Fortune 100 financial services companies, Waters warned them to continue their corporate DEI efforts despite Republican\u200b pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough America has seen some progress in ensuring that America\u2019s\u2064 workforce is as diverse as the American people, we must not overlook historical\u2064 context \u2064and ongoing systemic bias that necessitates diversity and inclusion practices,\u201d she said. \u201cThe recent Supreme \u200cCourt decision \u2064on affirmative action in\u2063 college admissions\u200c should not be used\u2064 as a basis to attack workplace diversity \u2064initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cania said that, at the \u200bvery \u200bleast, there will be a pause in corporate America amid the flurry of attention that DEI initiatives are receiving following the affirmative action ruling.<\/p>\n<p>He\u200b told the\u2064 Washington Examiner that there has been an increase in litigation of so-called reverse discrimination, and he said that he\u2062 thinks this ruling, right or wrong, \u201cmay increase or at least embolden plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys to go after those types of\u200c cases even more now.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>DEI Programs and Corporate \u2062Downsizing<\/h3>\n<p>DEI in the corporate world has grown massively in popularity over the \u200cpast few \u200cyears. Cania noted that the growth \u200breally \u2064took off after the murder \u200bof George Floyd back in mid-2020. \u2063But he pointed out that according to recent statistics about corporate downsizing, DEI employees make up a high percentage of the workers that are now being cut back.<\/p>\n<p>A \u200dstudy of more than 600\u2063 companies by data firm Revelio Labs found that attrition\u2063 rates for DEI roles\u2064 have outpaced those of non-DEI roles for the past\u2064 three years or so, with the trend accelerating heading \u2063into 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s behind that, but it\u2019s clear that\u2063 companies are cutting back on their DEI programs \u2064by cutting back on their people,\u201d\u200b Cania said.<\/p>\n<h3>The Intersection of\u200d DEI and ESG<\/h3>\n<p>The DEI trend ties into a broader\u200b embrace\u200d of environmental, social, and government principles, \u2064or ESG, which has grown in \u200dpopularity in the corporate world. The ESG movement centers on compelling social change through investment and\u2063 divestment. It is a corporate model that doesn\u2019t solely \u2062look at maximizing profit but also incorporates other elements into financial decisions \u2014 for instance, how an investment might <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges\/\" title=\"Supreme Court ruling sparks diversity battle in big business.\">affect fossil\u200d fuel emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Potential Lawsuits and Reputational Damage<\/h3>\n<p>Hoff said that employers might face\u2064 lawsuits\u200b over their DEI initiatives, and even if they win the\u2062 lawsuit, there might be some sort of reputational damage just from the fact that they were sued over their DEI program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re an \u200bemployer, the risk calculus becomes how much are we willing to take on the reputational side, do we need to change anything to make sure we\u2019re still in compliance with Title VII, etc.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hoff said \u2063that a lot of the same interest groups that \u200bworked to overturn affirmative action in higher education are going to turn their attention to employment and the corporate world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether \u200cthat\u2019s right or wrong is not for me to say \u2026 so if you\u2019re an employer,\u2064 the risk is not that your legal obligations have changed if\u200d your \u2064practices are already in compliance with Title VII, that has \u2063not changed,\u201d he said. \u201cBut regardless, the risk\u2064 is coming from this sort of increased risk\u2063 of litigation by some of these groups of individuals\u2063 who would like to go after DEI in \u200cthe corporate context.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/republicans-target-corporate-diversity-efforts-after-affirmative-action-ruling\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fresh front emerges in the diversity battle as Republicans take aim at corporations, while Democrats retaliate post Supreme Court&#8217;s affirmative action ruling. The Court&#8217;s decision earlier this year terminated affirmative action in college admissions. Activists and GOP officials, who have long criticized the practice, now seize the opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1997483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}