U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on Wednesday to dismiss several discrimination lawsuits that had been filed against police and fire departments across the United States under the Biden administration.
In a press release, the DOJ said the lawsuits went after police and fire departments for using standard aptitude tests in the hiring process. The DOJ said there was “no evidence of intentional discrimination — only statistical disparities” in the tests, adding that the Biden administration “branded the aptitude tests at issue in these cases as discriminatory in an effort to advance a DEI agenda.”
A lawsuit filed against the City of Durham, North Carolina, last October claimed that the city engaged in “unintentional” discrimination against black candidates. According to the lawsuit, white candidates passed the written test at a higher rate than black candidates, as reported by Fox News. In another lawsuit, the Maryland State Police were accused of “illegally discriminating against Black applicants and women” because the Civil Rights Division concluded that “Black applicants passed the test less often than White applicants and because women passed the physical test less often than men.”
Similar lawsuits were filed against South Bend, Indiana, and Cobb County, Georgia, according to Fox News. However, per Bondi’s directive on Wednesday, those cases will be dismissed. Bondi blasted the previous administration’s focus on DEI policies, saying, “American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety – not to meet DEI quotas.” The DOJ added that the “dismissal is an early step toward eradicating illegal DEI preferences across the government and in the private sector.”
The Trump administration is also aiming to eliminate DEI positions and programs in the federal government. “The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” a day-one executive order from Trump stated. The order then ordered all agencies to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions.”