Each week, Liebert Cassidy Whitmore provides a summary of newly issued Executive Orders and other significant Presidential and federal actions that have a foreseeable impact on governance, compliance, and operational policies for California employers. The summaries below outline the key provisions of each action, along with our brief analysis of their potential implications for municipal agencies, school districts, nonprofits, and private schools.
Update: Lawsuit Challenges President Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders (February 3, 2024)
President Trump previously issued two executive orders targeted at ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming—“Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” which focused on DEI efforts in federal agencies, on January 20, 2025, and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” on January 21, 2025. On February 3, 2025, the City of Baltimore and three organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the President’s authority to enact these orders. The lawsuit argues that the orders exceed the executive branch’s legal authority, encroach upon Congress’ constitutional power to control federal spending, and violate the separation of powers. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the orders are vague and chill free speech. LCW will continue to monitor significant developments in this lawsuit.
Update: White House Reportedly Failing to Comply with Court Injunction on Federal Funding Freeze (February 10, 2025)
Following the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo requiring all federal agencies to temporarily pause grant, loan, or federal financing assistance that may be implicated by the President’s executive orders, a federal judge blocked the freeze on federal funding from taking effect. On February 10, 2025, the federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had defied his order to release federal grants, violating the “plain text” of his ruling. The judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion to enforce his injunction against the Trump administration. Read LCW’s special bulletin about the OMB memos here.
On February 11, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” which aims to transform federal bureaucracy by eliminating waste.
The Order directs the Director of the OMB to develop a plan requiring federal agencies to hire no more than one employee for every four departures. The plan will also lend DOGE heavy involvement in federal agency hiring decisions. The Order advises federal agency heads to begin initiating large-scale reductions in force (not to include public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement functions). Within 30 days, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must initiate a new rulemaking process regarding suitability criteria for federal employees.
This Order does not directly apply to California employers. LCW will issue a further update if the reorganization of personnel in a particular federal agency has a foreseeable impact on public agency, private school, or nonprofit employers.
On February 14, 2025, the Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights released a letter clarifying and reaffirming the nondiscrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal financial assistance from the Department. Specifically, the letter addressed the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
The letter states that pursuant to Students for Fair Admissions, classifying and assigning students based on race is only lawful if it satisfies strict scrutiny, meaning it must be narrowly tailored—i.e., necessary—to achieve a compelling interest. The letter states that “diversity,” recognized in earlier Supreme Court decisions as a compelling interest in educational settings, as well as “social justice” and “equity,” are not compelling interests.
The letter clarifies that the Department interprets the Court’s opinion to prohibit the use of race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. The letter admonishes schools against using students’ personal essays, writing samples, participation in extracurriculars, or other cues as a means of determining a student’s race and favoring or disfavoring such students, as well as against using non-racial information as a proxy for race.
The Department announced its intent to enforce the law on equal terms as to all preschool, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary educational institutions, as well as state educational agencies, that receive financial assistance. The Department will begin applying the policy set forth in the letter to its enforcement of statutes and regulations on February 28, 2025.
The letter advises all Department funding recipients to review their policies consistent with the letter, as well as to cease efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends, or by relying on third-party contractors to do so. LCW encourages educational institutions that receive federal funding to review all policies in light of the Department’s letter—including policies regarding admissions, financial assistance, and affinity groups.
On February 15, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Keeping Education Accessible and Ending COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools,” designed to withhold discretionary federal funding to any educational service agency, state educational agency, local educational agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education (“educational entities”) that requires students to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in order to attend any in-person education program.
The Order mandates the Secretary of Education to issue guidelines clarifying educational entities’ legal obligations with respect to “parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under law, as relevant to coercive COVID-19 school mandates.” Additionally, within 90 days of the Order, the Secretary of Education must provide a plan to end coercive COVID-19 school mandates, including a list of the specific discretionary federal grants and contracts that the Department currently provides to educational entities that are non-compliant with the guidelines.
Public educational institutions and private schools that accept federal funding and mandate students to receive COVID-19 vaccinations should reevaluate their vaccination policies consistent with this Order. LCW will publish an update when the Department of Education issues its guidelines.