The EEOC’s latest DEI warning is ‘a nothing burger’

Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a letter to Fortune 500 companies on Feb. 26, reminding them that they are required to comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The letter is the latest warning to companies that DEI programs may not be used to discriminate against people based on race, gender, or other protected characteristics, and calls back to similar memos issued in 2025.

Lucas encouraged companies to “reject identity politics” and protect workers from discrimination she baselessly claimed is a result of DEI programs.

“My honest reaction to this when I read it was that it was a giant nothing burger,” David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, told HR Brew, adding that, through the letter, the EEOC does not accuse any companies of wrongdoing or say anything new.

The Trump administration has been quick to issue threats and vague guidance, but Glasgow pointed out that it “has been less active in actually putting its money where its mouth is in the courtroom.” The EEOC recently sued a Coca-Cola subsidiary over claims a program discriminated against men, and earlier this month lost a case against Starbucks, due to insufficient evidence that the company had discriminated against white men.

“If you can’t show that [discrimination], then your lawsuit will be thrown out,” Glasgow said. “Those kinds of standards just don’t apply to letters or to tweets. That’s where they can sort of say whatever they want to scare people.”

Glasgow noted that the administration seems to hope the pressure will encourage companies to abandon DEI, leading the practice to “die on its own,” which Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice, asserted during a 2025 Senate hearing.

Several companies, including Target and T-Mobile, changed course on DEI after Trump’s reelection, while others, like JPMorgan and Disney, shifted public-facing DEI language. Still, many others, including Costco, Chevron, Kroger, and Morgan Stanley, appear to be sticking with their DEI policies.

“These [Fortune 500 companies] are sophisticated companies with large legal teams. They are well aware of legal risks associated with DEI,” Glasgow said. “They’re well aware of this administration’s policies and enforcement posture toward DEI and so this reminder seemed pretty worthless to me.”