Federal workers appeal Trump DEI layoffs as biased, illegal

Federal workers laid off in connection with President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders said their terminations were discriminatory and violated their First Amendment rights, in an administrative complaint seeking reinstatement to their jobs.

The complaint, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, alleges the DEI-related layoffs targeted workers based on perceived political affiliation and disproportionately affected workers who aren’t white men.

It’s the latest legal challenge to Trump’s broader efforts to shrink the federal workforce. Government employee unions have scored a handful of initial victories, including rulings from U.S. judges in Maryland and California ordering federal agencies to temporarily rehire thousands of laid-off probationary employees.

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The lead appellant on the MSPB filing, former Office of Personnel Management staff member Mahri Stainnak, seeks to represent a large class of federal employees terminated in connection with prior work on DEI programs.

Stainnak previously worked in the OPM’s office of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and prior to that had worked on LGBTQ+ inclusion policies. Stainnak started a new position Jan. 13 focused on recruiting people with technical skills to the federal workforce, with no connection to DEI or LGBTQ+ issues, according to the complaint, but nevertheless was laid off Jan. 23 as part of the shutdown of federal DEI offices.

Three more federal employees will join Stainnak as named appellants on the MSPB complaint once their reduction-in-force notices take effect next month, according to the filing. These include staff members of the Department of Labor and the Federal Aviation Administration. The complaint alleges all of them were laid off as if they still held DEI-related positions, despite having left those positions for other roles in their agencies.

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Trump called for the shutdown of all DEI programs within federal agencies as part of Executive Orders 14151 and 14173. Those orders also threaten private-sector entities with the loss of federal contracts and enforcement actions if the administration considers their DEI programs to be discriminatory — enforcement threats that face multiple court challenges.

The American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia; Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; Kalijarvi Chuzi Newman & Fitch PC; and Democracy Forward are representing the federal employees.

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They also filed discrimination charges with each agency’s equal employment opportunity office alongside the merit systems complaint, alleging the layoffs violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the attorneys said.

Trump took action to end illegal DEI programs to advance the key priorities of “protecting the civil rights and expanding opportunities for all Americans,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a written statement responding to the workers’ complaint.