President Biden's Executive Actions: Focus On Diversity And Equity

• Published date: 26 January 2021
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Immigration, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, General Immigration
• Law Firm: WilmerHale
• Author: Mr Debo Adegbile, Peggy Otum, Tania Faransso, Brenda E. Lee and Rebecca Cooper

Introduction

Hours after his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed 17 executive actions covering a wide range of issues, including several focused on discrimination and racial justice, immigration, and environmental justice. Broadly speaking, and as summarized more fully below, the Biden Administration's executive orders, memorandums and proclamations have revoked a range of Trump Administration orders and policies and underscore the new Administration's intention to prioritize a comprehensive set of policies intended to enhance diversity and equity. One executive order, for example, directs all agency heads to affirmatively advance racial equity, while another embraces an expanded interpretation of Title VII that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

President Biden's executive actions reflect an unprecedented effort by a presidential administration to address diversity and equity comprehensively, across multiple policy initiatives, agencies and departments. While most of this first set of executive actions are aimed at federal agency conduct, their pervasive focus on diversity and equity represents a sea change that will not only impact the federal government but also lay the groundwork for an anticipated emphasis'including through government enforcement'on the private sector's efforts to comply with relevant laws and regulations.

Discrimination/Racial Justice

• Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation: This executive order reinforces the Supreme Court's recent holding in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The order commits to fully enforcing Title VII Title IX, the Fair Housing Act, Section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and other laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, and to extending the coverage of those laws to discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The order instructs each agency head to consider revising or rescinding agency actions that may be inconsistent with this policy.

• Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government: This executive order revokes President Trump's Executive Order 13950, which restricted diversity and inclusion training by federal agencies and contractors, and...