ALEXANDRA OLSON

AP Business Writer

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Federal judge blocks Labor Department from enforcing key part of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the U.S. Department of Labor from requiring government contractors and grant recipients to certify they do not operate any diversity, equity and inclusion programs that run afoul of anti-discrimination laws until further order

Jocelyn Samuels speaks in Seattle, Feb. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Ex-EEOC commissioner fired by Trump files lawsuit demanding reinstatement

A former Democratic commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging her dismissal by President Donald Trump, arguing her removal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act that created the agency to be an independent and bipartisan protector of the righ

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

EEOC chief shifts focus to investigating DEI but the methods provoke an outcry

The acting chief of the top federal agency for protecting worker rights has signaled a pivot toward prioritizing President Donald Trump’s campaign to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the private and public sectors.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

A federal judge temporarily blocks parts of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at curbing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts among federal contractors and grant recipients.

Federal workers targeted for DEI-related activities file class action complaint

A group of federal employees targeted for dismissal because of their involvement in diversity, equity and inclusion activities has filed a class action complaint against the Trump administration.

ACLU moves to take up gender identity lawsuit that EEOC is abandoning following Trump’s order

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to represent two restaurant workers in a gender identity discrimination lawsuit after a U.S. agency that enforces civil rights laws filed to drop the case to comply with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order targeting transgender people.

A protester is silhouetted against a trans pride flag during a pro-transgender rights protest outside of Seattle Children's Hospital, in Seattle, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

EEOC seeks to drop transgender discrimination cases, citing Trump’s executive order

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has moved to dismiss six of its own cases on behalf of workers alleging gender identity discrimination, arguing that the cases now conflict with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order.

President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump targets FAA diversity efforts in plane crash probe despite no evidence they played any role

President Donald Trump’s remarks this week blaming diversity recruitment at the FAA as a potential reason for the plane crash that killed 67 people has drawn attention to the agency’s attempts to address its most pressing and long-standing staffing problem.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Trump fires two Democratic commissioners of agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace

President Donald Trump has fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order as he attends an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event at Capital One Arena, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump administration directs all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on leave

President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to end affirmative action in federal contracting and is directing that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.

A photograph of Stephanie Cosme sits on an altar on Dec. 22, 2023, in Palmdale, Calif. (Paula Zamorano via AP)

Lawsuit alleges racial and gender discrimination led to an Air Force contractor’s death

The family of a Air Force contractor who was killed when she walked into a rotating drone propeller has filed a lawsuit against her company, Sumaria Systems LLC, claiming her trainer subjected her to gender and racial discrimination that ultimately put her in harm’s way and led to her death.

An aerial view shows a packed parking lot at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, as early Black Friday shoppers arrive at the mall. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Retailers coax Black Friday shoppers into stores with big discounts and giveaways

Retailers in the U.S. have used giveaways and bigger-than expected discounts to reward shoppers who ventured out on Black Friday.

FILE - People walk by the Walmart booth during the CES tech show on Jan. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Walmart’s DEI rollback signals a profound shift in the wake of Trump’s election victory

Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business.

Sheron Campbell wears a Kamala Harris shirt while voting on Election Day in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

AP VoteCast takeaways: Gender voting gap was unremarkable compared with recent history

If women alone had voted, Donald Trump would have lost the presidential election decisively. Men were more likely than women to support President-elect Trump, but in the end, the gender voting gap was unremarkable by historical standards.

Ingrid Vaca poses for a photograph in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

What’s behind the widening gender wage gap in the US?

The first widening of the gender wage in 20 years is the latest indication that many women have paid a price for leaving the workforce at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, either because they lost their jobs or because they quit because of caretaking responsibilities.

FILE - Lilly Ledbetter looks to the audience as President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 8, 2014, during an event marking Equal Pay Day. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Lilly Ledbetter, an icon of the fight for equal pay, has died at 86

Lilly Ledbetter, a former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to landmark wage discrimination legislation, has died at 86.

FILE - Co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund Arian Simone, center left, and Ayana Parsons, center right, speak to journalists outside the James Lawrence King Federal Building in Miami, as they leave with their legal team following a hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Fearless Fund drops grant program for Black women business owners in lawsuit settlement

A venture capital firm has closed a grant program for Black women business owners as part of a settlement with a conservative group that had filed a lawsuit alleging the program was discriminatory.

Hotel workers on strike chant and beat drums while picketing outside the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

Strikes start at top hotel chains as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work

Hotel housekeepers have for years waged a fierce battle to restore automatic daily room cleaning that was scaled back at many properties during the coronavirus pandemic.

FILE - Ayana Parsons, one of the co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund, walks outside the James Lawrence King Federal Building in Miami, Jan. 31, 2024, following a hearing. On Monday, June 24, 2024, Parsons, one of the co-founders of the Atlanta-based venture capital firm that supports women of color, stepped down as chief operating officer as the company battles a lawsuit that has become emblematic of a conservative backlash against corporate diversity programs. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

A co-founder of the embattled venture capital firm Fearless Fund has stepped down as operating chief

One of the co-founders of an Atlanta-based venture capital firm that supports women of color has stepped down as chief operating officer.

FILE - The emblem of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is shown on a podium in Vail, Colo., Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in Denver. A federal judge on Monday, June 17, 2024, granted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as employers in two Southern states, temporary relief from complying with a federal rule that would have required them to provide workers with time off and other workplace accommodations for abortions. The lawsuits challenge the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's regulations stating that 2022 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act covers abortion. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Judge rules that federal agency can’t enforce abortion rule in Louisiana and Mississippi

A federal judge on Monday granted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as employers in two Southern states, temporary relief from complying with a federal rule that would have required them to provide workers with time off and other accommodations for abortions.

FILE - An exam room is seen inside Planned Parenthood on March 10, 2023. A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions lacks standing, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled on Friday, June 14, 2024 (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging federal rules to accommodate abortions for workers

A lawsuit challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions lacks standing, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled on Friday.

FILE - Co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund Arian Simone, center left, and Ayana Parsons, center right, speak to journalists outside federal court in Miami, on Jan. 31, 2024. A U.S. federal court of appeals panel suspended the venture capital firm's grant program for Black women business owners, ruling that a conservative group is likely to prevail in its lawsuit claiming that the program is the discriminatory. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

A grant program for Black women business owners is discriminatory, appeals court rules

A U.S. federal court of appeals panel suspended a venture capital firm’s grant program for Black women business owners on Monday, ruling that a conservative group is likely to prevail in its lawsuit claiming that the program is discriminatory.

Carrie Martin-Haley holds her son outside their home Friday, May 10, 2024, in Greenwood Village, Colo. Colorado's paid family and medical leave benefits kicked in on Jan. 1, too late for Martin-Haley, a small business owner in Denver who gave birth to her son in September 2023. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

More US parents than ever have paid leave this Mother’s Day - but most still don’t

More working U.S. parents than ever are celebrating their first Mother’s Day with hard-fought access to paid time off to care for newborns.

FILE - The emblem of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is shown on a podium in Vail, Colo., Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in Denver. Pregnant workers have the right to a wide range of accommodations under new federal regulations for implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The regulations take an expansive view of conditions related to pregnancy, from fertility treatments to abortion and post-childbirth complications. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Morning sickness? Prenatal check-ups? What to know about new rights for pregnant workers

Pregnant workers have the right to a wide range of accommodations under new federal regulations for enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

FILE - An exam room is seen inside Planned Parenthood on March 10, 2023, in Fairview Heights, Ill. Workers are entitled to workplace accommodations for abortions and some pregnancy-related conditions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, according to federal regulations published Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

New rules for Pregnant Workers Fairness Act include divisive accommodations for abortion

Workers are entitled to time off and other job accommodations for abortions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, according to finalized federal regulations published Monday.

Nellie Borrero, Senior Strategic Advisor for Global Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture, is shown in an undated photo. Borrero is author of a new book detailing her 30-year effort to build DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practices at the company. (Brett Deutsch, Deutsch Photography/Accenture via AP).

Insider Q&A: Nellie Borrero recounts 4 decades of addressing racism and bringing change to Accenture

It didn’t take long for Nellie Borrero to encounter racism in 1986 when she joined a major consulting firm that was the predecessor to Accenture.

A federal judge has ordered a US minority business agency to serve all races

A federal judge in Texas has ordered a 55-year-old U.S. agency that caters to minority-owned businesses to serve people regardless of race, siding with white business owners who claimed the program discriminated against them.

Arian Simone, second left, one of the co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund, walks out of the James Lawrence King Federal Building following a hearing, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, in Miami. A federal appeals court in Miami heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit against The Fearless Fund, a small venture capital firm that provides early stage funding to businesses owned by women of color, and which conservative activists are targeting as part of a growing legal backlash against corporate diversity programs. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Grant program for Black women comes under tough questioning in key anti-DEI lawsuit

A small venture capital firm faced tough questions from conservative judges Wednesday as it defended a grant program for Black women-owned businesses in a lawsuit that has become emblematic of a growing legal backlash against corporate diversity programs.

File - Conservative activist Edward Blum speaks at a news conference in Washington, June 29, 2023. Blum is citing Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to go after a venture capital fund called Fearless Fund, which invests in businesses owned by women of color. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

DEI opponents are using a 1866 Civil Rights law to challenge equity policies in the workplace

Opponents of diversity programs are increasingly banking on an 1866 civil rights law meant to protect Black people from economic exclusion as a way to challenge corporate diversity and equity policies as well as funding to Black-owned businesses.

As diversity, equity and inclusion comes under legal attack, companies quietly alter their programs

Conservative advocates have filed a growing number of legal challenges, encouraged by the Supreme Court’s June ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions.