Compliance Stuff

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it had rescinded two documents relating to permissible affirmative action 1 under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act: (1) its regulatory guidelines 2 on “appropriate” affirmative action under the statute; and (2) section 607 of its Compliance Manual, which addressed those guidelines and the agency’s enforcement positions with respect to permissible affirmative action and affirmative action plans.  Both the guidelines and the related portion of the Compliance Manual explained that voluntary affirmative action plans were only permitted under federal equal employment opportunity laws when designed to remedy past or present discrimination or to address manifest imbalances in traditionally segregated job categories and carefully structured to avoid unlawfully disadvantaging other employees. The documents emphasized that to be lawful, a plan had to be temporary, flexible, and narrowly tailored, and ...

A longtime rule may soon be scrapped that helped employers ensure they were providing equal employment opportunities and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion while also complying with federal anti-discrimination laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) submitted a proposal to the White House on May 27 seeking to revoke a safe harbor for employers that’s been in place for nearly 50 years. The move aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate DEI programs from the workplace and focus on merit-based opportunities. Here are three key takeaways from the EEOC’s latest action and the practical steps employers should be taking now. 1. Employers Would Lose Safe Harbor The EEOC wants to revoke a 1979 interpretive rule addressing a potential conflict between voluntary affirmative action plans (not those previously mandated for federal contractors) and compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based ...

Executive Order (EO) No. 14398, “ Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors ,” issued on March 26, 2026, introduces a  new compliance dynamic  for federal contractors by requiring prime contractors to report “known or reasonably knowable” subcontractor conduct that constitutes “racially discriminatory” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities. 00:00 10:32 While the new contractual obligation is plainly written, the contours of what is “reasonably knowable” are less certain. For primes, the key question now is how far their due diligence and oversight responsibilities should extend into the operations of their subs, particularly in sensitive internal areas such as employment practices (e.g., hiring and promotions), employee program participation, contracting, or allocation or deployment of company resources. The clause’s focus on conduct “[i]n connection with” the contract and traditional industry practice in the prime–sub relationship can provide a complia...

On February 5, 2026, the parties in  Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor  filed a stipulated request in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to lift the temporary stay that has paused the disclosure of federal contractors’ EEO-1 reports at the center of this case. Case Background In 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit  affirmed the district court’s order  that required the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to release EEO-1 report data the agency had withheld in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The Ninth Circuit held that EEO-1 workforce demographic data is not “commercial” information protected by FOIA Exemption 4 and must be disclosed. The decision became final after the federal government declined to seek rehearing. While the Ninth Circuit’s decision resolved a significant legal question about the scope of FOIA Exemption 4, the  case had not concluded , with additional issue...

In July, the DOJ released updated guidance on what might constitute “illegal DEI” by government contractors under an executive order issued in January. As a result, contractors must now move beyond compliance checklists and toward a strategic, principled and legally sound approach to workforce management, says Constangy partner Cara Crotty, who breaks down the latest developments.   In January, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” This action rescinded Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965 to provide equal opportunity for women and minorities in hiring by government contractors. The practical implications of this significant shift are just beginning to unfold. Contractors must now recalibrate their  compliance  practices, understand their remaining legal obligations and prepare for a new era of federal scrutiny, one that targets DEI programs as potential sources of unlawful discriminati...