Trump administration opens investigation into Minnesota agency’s affirmative action policy

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it has opened an investigation into whether a Minnesota state agency’s newly updated affirmative action policy violates civil rights laws.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services’ policy requires supervisors to provide a “hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate.” Supervisors who don’t comply can be disciplined, even fired.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that the policy “seems to be part of a broader effort by the state to engage in race- and sex-based employment practices in its ‘affirmative action’ objectives.”

The Trump administration has been using federal civil rights law to fight diversity, equity and inclusion programs on several fronts, saying diversity preferences amount to illegal discrimination against white and Asian American people. On Thursday, the administration opened a civil rights investigation into hiring practices at George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public university.

“Minnesotans deserve to have their state government employees hired based on merit, not based on illegal DEI,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

The policy, as first reported this week by Alpha News, a local conservative website, requires supervisors to justify their decision when hiring a candidate who doesn’t come from an “underrepresented” group — women and racial minorities — for job categories where those groups are considered underrepresented.

The state Department of Human Services said in a statement that it “follows all state and federal hiring laws.” It said justification for “non-affirmative action hires for some vacancies has been required by state law since 1987.” And it cited a state statute that says, “An agency that does not meet its hiring goals must justify its nonaffirmative action hires in competitive appointments and noncompetitive appointments.”

In a letter Thursday to Shireen Gandhi, the state agency’s temporary commissioner, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it has reason to believe the policy is unlawful.

“This hiring justification policy appears to be just one component of a broader effort by Minnesota to engage in race- and sex-based employment practices pursuant to ‘affirmative action’ objectives,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote.

Minnesota Republicans were quick to call for elimination of the policy.

“This hiring policy is DEI on steroids,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, said in a statement.

In another Trump administration move against DEI programs on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a final rule lifting requirements for racial and gender preferences in its programs.

The Justice Department has targeted other racial justice initiatives in Minnesota. In May, it backed out of a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Also in May, it opened an investigation of the prosecutor’s office in Minnesota’s most populous county after its leader directed her staff to consider racial disparities as one factor when negotiating plea deals.