A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a preliminary injunction that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive orders terminating federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The panel reasoned that it was not the federal courts’ role to determine the soundness of Trump’s policy directives. The panel also disregarded the academic and restaurant worker groups’ First and Fifth Amendment challenges to the executive orders, finding that they were neither impermissibly vague nor chilling of speech.
The case is National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Donald Trump, Case Number 25-1189, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Trump issued two executive orders in 2025 that ended all DEI programs and related grants in federal government agencies. Federal grant recipients must also certify that they do not use DEI programs that violate antidiscrimination laws. The order also directed agency leaders and the Attorney General to develop a plan to deter DEI programs rewarding identity rather than merit.
In response, various groups filed suit in February 2025 and soon obtained a preliminary injunction blocking the executive orders from going into effect. The U.S. District judge ruled that portions of the orders appeared to be unconstitutionally vague and likely to restrict free speech in violation of the First Amendment. However, the Fourth Circuit stayed the injunction pending the government’s appeal.
In the Fourth Circuit’s ruling, the panel found that the groups lacked standing to challenge the report prepared by agency leaders and the Attorney General, as they had already delivered it to Trump last June. Since the report didn’t explicitly or directly target the private sector, the panel reasoned, it didn’t affect the groups, so they had no standing.
Still, the panel found the groups had standing to challenge portions of the orders that cancel DEI government grants and require government contractors to certify that they will not host DEI programs. Nonetheless, the panel ruled that the groups failed to show that the orders’ provisions are unconstitutionally vague, finding that they don’t regulate private conduct. Instead, the provisions merely instruct executive agencies to take legal action. To the extent that a government agency terminates a contract illegally, the panel reasoned, the contractor can then bring a separate legal action against the agency.
Likewise, the Fourth Circuit panel rejected the argument that the certification provision amounts to viewpoint discrimination by targeting DEI programs. According to the Fourth Circuit, the groups have no First Amendment protections to operate DEI programs in violation of federal law.
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