At a Glance
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a 74-page memo Monday declaring most diversity, equity and inclusion programs unconstitutional.
- The guidance targets both public agencies and private companies, warning that race- or sex-based hiring, mentoring and training could violate state and federal law.
- Governor Greg Abbott had already ended race-conscious contracting through the Historically Underutilized Business Program; Paxton’s memo goes further, inviting litigation against corporate DEI efforts.
- Why it matters: Businesses now face potential lawsuits for initiatives meant to broaden opportunities for Black, Hispanic and women workers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton used the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to announce sweeping legal guidance that could dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the state.
While marchers celebrated civil-rights achievements Monday morning, Paxton’s office published a 74-page memo arguing that most DEI practices constitute illegal race- and sex-based discrimination. The opinion applies to government agencies and, significantly, signals that private employers could be next.
Parade-goers defend gains
At Dallas’ annual MLK parade, attendees told News Of Fort Worth they fear the state is rolling back progress.
“You have people who don’t know the whole background story to that. So why take it away? That’s something we need,” said Gregory Harrington.
“It helped with education. It educated our people more,” added Jeanine Robinson.
Memo claims programs fail legal test
Paxton’s document states that “race- and sex-based public sector preferences… cannot survive strict scrutiny and are therefore unconstitutional.”
It also warns that “a large body of DEI practices in the private sector triggers liability” under existing civil-rights statutes.
The guidance builds on Governor Abbott’s earlier move to curb the Historically Underutilized Business Program, which had steered state contracts toward Black, Hispanic and women-owned firms. Abbott defended the shift in a prior News Of Fort Worth interview:
“There is a prohibition in the Constitution to discriminate on the basis of race or sex. And that doesn’t mean that if you’re Black or Hispanic or a woman or a man or white or whatever, you’re going to be denied access.”
Business backlash
Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP, wrote that the opinion “invites lawsuits and unwarranted hostility toward institutions that have attempted, however imperfectly, to broaden opportunity in workplaces that still do not reflect full equality for Black and Brown Americans.”
State Representative Venton Jones, D-Dallas, predicted the memo is a prelude to litigation against private companies.
“And this isn’t the first signal. This is a string of examples since I have been elected, indicating that there is a ramping up of policies that are becoming more and more discriminatory,” Jones told News Of Fort Worth.
Arthur Fleming, former president of the NAACP’s Dallas branch, noted that many diversity initiatives originally helped white women as well as minorities.
“The fact that we had diversity benefited everybody, the city, everybody. So going against that, it’s going to hurt a lot of people,” Fleming said.
Political subplot
The release lands amid a heated Republican primary. Paxton is challenging U.S. Senator John Cornyn, who previously held the attorney-general post.
In his memo, Paxton claimed to overrule “a flawed opinion from then-AG Cornyn that allowed DEI to flourish.”
Cornyn fired back online:
“You’d think a competent Attorney General would know that what I issued more than 25 years ago was a retraction of incomplete guidance due to litigation, not an ‘opinion.’ There’s nothing for him to overturn because nothing was issued, so this is yet another waste of time and taxpayer dollars by the TX AG, showboating for attention.”
What happens next
State agencies must now review hiring, promotion and contracting practices. Private employers face uncertainty as plaintiffs’ lawyers study Paxton’s invitation to sue.
The full impact will emerge in “the weeks and months ahead,” Megan L. Whitfield reported.
