Trump-Vance Administration’s Executive Order Strips Away Long-Standing Protections Against Employment Discrimination
Maryland – Democracy Forward and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of FreeState Justice, against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and its Acting Chair Andrea Lucas for unlawfully refusing to enforce federal workplace protections for transgender workers.
The complaint challenges the EEOC’s sweeping nonenforcement policy that denies transgender workers access to the agency’s investigation process, dismisses ongoing cases brought on their behalf, and halts payments to state and local civil rights agencies for investigating claims tied to discrimination on the basis of gender identity. This is a stark contrast to the long-standing practice of the EEOC.
The EEOC’s actions violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection guarantee, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Bostock v. Clayton County precedent, a case where the U.S. Supreme Court held that Title VII’s prohibition against employment discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, confirming protections for LGBTQ+ workers that the EEOC had already recognized for nearly a decade.
“Policies like the EEOC’s undermine the law and endanger people. They force LGBTQI+ people and other marginalized communities to choose between their job and being true to who they are,” said Lauren Pruitt, Legal Director at FreeState Justice. “These harms show up in the daily lives of the communities we serve through our legal work, who are being pushed further into the margins. We are fighting back because no one should have to live in fear of discrimination or retribution just to go to work.”
“For over 60 years, the EEOC’s mandate has been to protect workers from discrimination, not to pick and choose who is deemed worthy of protection based on political interference,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful effort to erase protections for transgender people is cruel, and a violation of the law and the Constitution. We are honored to be alongside our partners and clients to hold this administration accountable and ensure every worker is protected under the law.”
“Instead of serving its critical role to prevent discrimination in the workplace, the EEOC, under Andrea Lucas’ leadership, is actually promoting discrimination,” said Gaylynn Burroughs, Vice President for Education and Workplace Justice at NWLC. “Transgender workers deserve to be protected against harassment, and the EEOC is obligated to do so under law. But the Trump administration seems hellbent on bullying transgender people in every possible way and ensuring that they are pushed out of all forms of public life, including their workplaces, so we’re taking the administration to court.”
The EEOC’s refusal to enforce civil rights protections follows Trump-Vance administration directives, including Executive Order 14168, which redefines federal policy to recognize only two sexes and strips away protections for transgender people across the federal government. Since January, the EEOC has moved to dismiss at least seven active lawsuits involving transgender and non-binary workers, stopped processing many discrimination complaints involving gender identity, and instructed staff to classify such complaints as meritless.
The legal team at Democracy Forward in this case includes Sarah Goetz, Audrey Wiggins and Sunu Chandy.
The case is FreeState Justice et al. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Foundation et al.
Read the complaint here.
