Judge Keeps Trump Anti-DEI Orders Blocked While Appeal Proceeds

A federal judge declined to lift an order blocking portions of Trump executive orders limiting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while the administration appeals the case.

The government hasn’t shown a strong likelihood of success to justify a stay on the preliminary injunction issued Feb. 21, Judge Adam Abelson of the US District Court for the District of Maryland wrote Monday.

A consideration of the “balance of harms” and the “public interest” also weigh against a stay, said Abelson, a Biden appointee. Additionally, he declined to limit the scope of the injunction to cover only the members of the plaintiffs—which included groups representing college diversity officers, university professors, and restaurant workers, as well as Baltimore city officials.

The case, now pending before the Richmond, Va.-based US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, is one of several challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders to root out “illegal” DEI programs across federal agencies and among companies that do business with the government.

Abelson last month found that several provisions in the orders either violated constitutional due process protections because they were too vague or ran afoul of First Amendment free speech rights. He focused specifically on mandates for agencies to terminate “equity-related” grants or contracts; for contractors or grantees to certify they aren’t “promoting DEI"; and for the attorney general to “encourage” the private sector to end DEI programs under threat of enforcement.

The case is Nat’l Assoc. of Diversity Officers in Higher Educ. v. Trump, D. Md., No. 1:25-cv-00333, 3/3/25.