A group of Democratic attorneys general on Wednesday rejected claims by some of their Republican counterparts that many corporate workforce diversity programs amount to illegal discrimination.
In a call with reporters, attorneys general from New York, Illinois, Nevada and four other states said 13 Republican officials erred in suggest last week that a recent Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in higher education has some impact on employers’ diversity efforts.
The Republican AGs in letters sent to the CEOs of the 100 largest companies in the US warned they could take legal action against companies that set hiring quotas or treat job applicants differently because of their race.
But on Wednesday, Democratic officials said the vast majority of companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies are designed to set ambitious goals or diversify pools of job applicants.
“I am not aware of any corporation that promotes quotas or openly discriminates based on a number,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.
James and the other AGs said they wanted to make it clear to companies that their states support diversity efforts and will not take legal action to dismantle them.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican who spearheaded last week’s letter, said in a statement that the reasoning behind the recent Supreme Court decision makes it clear that companies cannot factor race into employment decisions, even if they mean well.
“Corporate America continues to have many avenues to help disadvantaged individuals and communities of all races without drawing across harsh racial lines,” Skrmetti said.
The Supreme Court ruling last month said the race-conscious admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violated the US Constitution.
The decision does not directly affect employers, but it is widely expected to stimulate legal challenges to corporate diversity initiatives that take race into account.
Democratic attorneys general said Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s ruling has nothing to do with employer practices and that it was a mistake to equate race-conscious school admissions policies with corporate diversity initiatives.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the primary goal of workplace diversity programs is to address the difficulty people from disadvantaged backgrounds face, especially first-generation college students, in participating in informal networks that often lead to jobs.
“A lot of the really qualified applicants who are women or people of color just didn’t know these opportunities existed and how to navigate the system,” Torrez said.