March 17, 2025
By Joshua Robbins
President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” is an ambitious gambit: using the False Claims Act as a lever to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion programs among federal contractors and grant recipients. In effect, the order requires contractors to certify that they don’t have unlawful DEI policies—and sets them up for potentially ruinous FCA investigations and lawsuits if they do.
A Maryland judge recently blocked some aspects of the executive order on constitutional grounds, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has lifted the injunction, allowing the order to go into effect while the appeal plays out. But even if that injunction doesn’t stand, recent judicial trends suggest that the administration’s approach may face significant headwinds.
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