The Justice Department is carrying out President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI agenda by ending federal civil rights lawsuits accusing police and fire departments of discrimination based on tests given to applicants for jobs or promotions.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that such suits endanger public safety by encouraging local governments to make hiring decisions based on diversity concerns rather than on qualifications.
“American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety — not to meet DEI quotas,” Bondi said in a statement.
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department launched a series of lawsuits to force changes to written examinations and physical fitness tests that often resulted in Black and female applicants losing out on fire and police jobs due to lower scores. DOJ alleged at the time that the tests did “not meaningfully distinguish between applicants who can and cannot perform the job” duties of firefighters or police.
“Discriminatory barriers that deny qualified Black and female applicants the opportunity to be police officers violate civil rights and undermine public safety efforts,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said last year.
Last fall, lawyers in the department’s Civil Rights Division reached settlements with the Maryland State Police and the Durham Fire Department over their tests. However, the consent decrees to resolve those cases had not yet been approved by judges. The Justice Department dropped the Durham case on Tuesday and asked for an extension of at least 90 days in the Maryland litigation.
The department also filed a lawsuit last October against South Bend, Indiana, alleging that the city’s police department discriminated against Black applicants through a written exam and against female applications via a physical fitness test. That case remained pending as of Wednesday afternoon.
Prompting the about-face by the incoming Trump administration is a long-running battle over the use of “disparate impact” to prove discrimination. The Biden administration favored such an approach, arguing that intentional discrimination can be hard to prove and that statistical analyses could show illegal discrimination.
But the Trump administration and many legal conservatives contend that disparate results for particular racial groups or along gender lines don’t necessarily show discrimination. Conservatives also argue that allowing litigation over any statistical differences puts courts in the position of deciding how necessary particular skills are to a job when local officials should be making those decisions.
The Justice Department’s move comes after Trump appointees acted, within days of taking office, to pause all litigation by the Civil Rights Division. Trump also issued executive orders seeking to shut down so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the government and by those who receive federal funds. However, last week, a federal judge in Maryland blocked part of Trump’s directive aimed at ending grants and contracts to organizations or businesses with DEI programs.
While suits over test results were highlighted by the Biden administration in its final months, they’ve also taken place during Republican presidencies. In 2007, under President George W. Bush, the Justice Department sued New York City, alleging that its fire department’s use of exams discriminated against black and Latino applicants. The case was settled in 2014.
