Nat'l Ass'n of Diversity Officers in Higher Ed. v. Trump, decided Thursday by Judge Adam Abelson (D. Md.), reaffirms an injunction against the Administration's DEI Executive Orders that the judge had issued (and that was stayed on appeal). The plaintiffs argue that "[new] factual developments merit vacating the injunction and permitting Plaintiffs to file an amended complaint and a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction," and the court said no. But in the process the court discussed the substantive question, and I thought I'd pass that along:
This Court remains of the view that Plaintiffs have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their facial free speech and vagueness claims …. The Challenged Provisions forbid government contractors and grantees from engaging in "equity-related" work and from "promoting DEI" in ways the administration may consider to violate antidiscrimination laws; they demand that the "private sector" "end … DEI" and threaten "strategic enforcement" to effectuate the "end[ing]" of "DEI"; and they threaten contractors and grantees with enforcement actions with the explicit purpose of "deter[ring]" such "programs or principles."
This Court remains deeply troubled that the Challenged Provisions, which constitute content-based, viewpoint-discriminatory restrictions on speech (in addition to conduct), have the inherent and ineluctable effect of silencing speech that has long been, and remains, protected by the First Amendment. And they do so through impermissibly vague directives that exacerbate the speech-chilling aspects of the Challenged Provisions.
