Image by Miles Peacock.
Though Donald Trump has sought to eradicate it from government, business, and education, DEI continues to haunt him. Judges have resisted his efforts to end DEI initiatives and policies, and basic principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion remain stubbornly rooted, after decades of struggle for a multiracial democracy, in American cultural soil.
Having guided litigators, judges, activists, and journalists, these principles help check the violence and callous disregard for law that characterize authoritarian regimes.
Although inclusion, for example, carries different nuances depending on its context (e.g., education, government, or business), its basic meaning is straightforward: a just society must include all individuals equally and with dignity. It’s about counting in, not counting out.
Counting in – not excluding – has been a guiding principle for the three appeals rulings that have upheld orders blocking Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to any U.S.-born child if neither the mother or father was a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. The judges ruled that the executive order violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to any child born in the U.S., a guarantee originally intended to ensure full citizenship to all individuals who had been denied citizenship as former slaves.
Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 1898 case (United States v Wong Kim Ark) that the 14thAmendment also guarantees birthright citizenship to children born here to non-citizen parents.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to rule on the matter, and it remains to be seen when the Court will take it up. In the meantime, the appeals court rulings help ensure that any child born here can grow up as a full citizen, not having to fear ICE knocking at the door – and whatever maltreatment could possibly ensue.
For defenders of democracy, the principle of inclusion is inseparable from the principle of equity, i.e. the right of every person to fair and just treatment, no matter what their status or background. As I write this column, federal Judge James E. Boasberg continues to hold the Trump administration accountable for deporting 238 Venezuelan men it claimed to be gang members to El Salvador, where they are now locked in a notorious maximum security prison.
Boasberg ordered a pause of this deportation in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward, which claimed that Donald Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport the men was unlawful. The suit noted that the nation is not at war, a condition required by the Act, and the plaintiffs cited in the suit were denied the due process accorded by well-established American immigration law.
Since the government ignored Judge Boasberg’s order to turn back the planes carrying the men to El Salvador, the subsequent standoff has focused on a number of key issues, including the timing of the flights, whether or not individuals in the deported group are actually gang members (the ACLU and Democracy Forward maintain that several are not), and whether the government overreached in invoking the Alien Enemies Act to fly the men out of the country. In whatever way these issues are ultimately resolved (or not resolved), the ACLU and Democracy Forward have adhered to a central principle of equitable treatment under law: the government can’t simply disappear people. Due process must be adhered to.
It’s been a few weeks since Donald Trump initiated his scorched earth campaign again DEI, blocking progress on initiatives that helped make the U.S. more equitable, more just. He has, among many things, reversed decades of progress on environmental justice, ending programs that address the disproportionate impacts of pollution on low-income communities and communities of color. He has intimidated businesses that have employed DEI initiatives to make workplaces more equitable and representative of the community at large.
Yet the scorched earth strategy has inspired new forms of resistance. Environmental justice groups are regrouping and renewing their resolve to work at local and regional levels. Corporate submission and backtracking has been met by powerful counter-measures like the boycott against Target that Rev. Jamal Bryant initiated to make the company come through on commitments it made to the Black community.
The struggles for diversity, equity, and inclusion are struggles for the future of American democracy. To the extent that the defenders of these values understand the principles’ far-reaching significance, and actualize them through collective wisdom, courage, and will, the principles will become living forces regenerating and renewing a faltering democracy.
