What Is Just and Unjust
John Rawls | Ending Desegregation As We Know It
We may reject the contention that the ordering of institutions is always defective because the distribution of natural talents and the contingencies of social circumstance are unjust, and this injustice must inevitably carryover to human arrangements. Occasionally this reflection is offered as an excuse for ignoring injustice, as if the refusal to acquiesce in injustice is on a par with being unable to accept death. The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.
| John Rawls, Theory of Justice
Ending Desegregation As We Know It
Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back a bunch of civil-rights-in-the-government-workforce EOs, like EO 11246 which was signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, intended to protect employees of companies working for the government of discrimination. Entitled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, the order was signed on 2025-01-21, one day after Martin Luther King Jr day.
In a astonishing feat of doublethink, the EO declares Trump has ‘a solemn duty’ to protect freedom from discrimination, then he rules that 60 years of anti-discrimination policy — within government and business — is illegal, especially Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. He is — in the words of Jamelle Bouie — revoking desegregation in Federal contracting. But, as we’ll see, he goes further than that.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans.
Yet today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) or "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility" (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.
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. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.
These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.
The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination.
After preaching about protecting civil rights, and how terrible the past 60 years of civil rights protections have been, the document gets down to business, invalidating a litany of previous executive orders:
Sec. 3. Terminating Illegal Discrimination in the Federal Government.
(a) The following executive actions are hereby revoked:
(i) Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994 (Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations);
(ii) Executive Order 13583 of August 18, 2011 (Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce);
(iii) Executive Order 13672 of July 21, 2014 (Further Amendments to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government, and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity); and
(iv) The Presidential Memorandum of October 5, 2016 (Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce).(b) The Federal contracting process shall be streamlined to enhance speed and efficiency, reduce costs, and require Federal contractors and subcontractors to comply with our civil-rights laws. Accordingly:
(i) Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity), is hereby revoked.
For 90 days from the date of this order, Federal contractors may continue to comply with the regulatory scheme in effect on January 20, 2025.
The Trump administration is stating, explicitly, that these executive orders in fact required illegal discrimination. And in the case of EO 11246, for 60 years. That EO required that employees of companies working for the US government not be discriminated against for race, creed, or religion.
And who were discriminated against? Obviously, those who were NOT benefited by the practices put in place by Lyndon Johnson — and allowed to continue by all US presidents since that time, both Democrat and Republican: white people.
The executive order also ends all DEI practices and policies, declaring them to be illegal, as well. Another litany of EOs struck down.
But this goes beyond just federal workforce policies. Trump is telling the private sector they must follow suit, or else:
Sec. 4. Encouraging the Private Sector to End Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences.
(a) The heads of all agencies, with the assistance of the Attorney General, shall take all appropriate action with respect to the operations of their agencies to advance in the private sector the policy of individual initiative, excellence, and hard work identified in section 2 of this order.
(b) To further inform and advise me so that my Administration may formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policy, the Attorney General, within 120 days of this order, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies and in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall submit a report to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI. The report shall contain a proposed strategic enforcement plan identifying:
(i) Key sectors of concern within each agency's jurisdiction;
(ii) The most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern;
(iii) A plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or principles (whether specifically denominated "DEI" or otherwise) that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences. As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars;
(iv) Other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all Federal civil- rights laws;
(v) Litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest; and(vi) Potential regulatory action and sub-regulatory guidance.
So, desegregation across the nation ended by the stroke of a pen?
A company might argue that hiring — for example — only Asian-American employees was based on merit, not prejudice. And who would take them to court for that, in the world that Trump wants?
Businesses are now supposed to hire, fire, and promote based on ‘individual merit’ — undefined — and not taking into account the factors that formerly held sway in all these cancelled executive orders.
Yes, we can expect court cases to be brought to contend these actions. Who knows what will become of that. But in the meantime, companies, associations, educational institutions, foundations, and non-profits will be considering adopting these policies — or preemptively enacting them. We’ve seen moves by some prominent companies — Meta, Ford, Walmart, McDonalds and others — who have already shut those programs down.
The shape of things to come.
It’s worth making clear what the phrase environmental justice means, for those less familiar with the term: it means you can’t systematically dump toxic waste in the neighborhoods of people of color just because they are poorer and less politically powerful. Rolling back that prohibition is shameful.