ADF calls on corporations to ditch DEI policies in light of 2024 election
Over $16 billion in assets under management mobilized to urge Fortune 1000 companies to drop legally, reputationally risky DEI policies that were rejected at ballot box
WASHINGTON – Along with a coalition of investors, financial advisors, and the State Financial Officers Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys sent letters to each Fortune 1000 company, calling on executives to reject discriminatory, risky, and discredited Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies. The letters also urge companies to provide necessary shareholder transparency via ADF’s Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index.
The letter’s signatories include SFOF Chief Executive Officer Dr. O.J. Oleka, Andy Olivastro and John Backiel of The Heritage Foundation, CEO Robert Netzly of Christian financial technology firm Inspire Investing, proxy voting and corporate engagement consultant Jerry Bowyer, and financial advisor David Bahnsen. The letter highlights the mounting legal and reputational risk of divisive DEI policies and calls on companies to distance themselves from DEI and from far-left social credit scoring systems such as the Human Rights Campaign’s so-called “Corporate Equality Index” that pressures companies into taking divisive stands on hot-button cultural issues.
The trend to buck DEI and social credit scoring through the far-left HRC has further accelerated with the recent presidential election. As the letter points out, “With both houses of Congress soon under Republican control, a Trump-Vance administration will likely advance and enact policies that increase the risk of current DEI policies at every corporation.”
“Americans have sent a powerful message at the ballot box,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “They’re tired of divisive ideologies like DEI that pit people against each other because of their skin color or deeply held beliefs. Corporate leaders need to learn this same lesson. Divisive DEI policies and short-sighted commitments to radical political agendas demanded by far-left groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s so-called ‘Corporate Equality Index’ are a liability to any company. We call on leaders of every corporation to respond to this moment and their shareholders by abandoning divisive policies and embracing proactive changes that support freedoms that serve their diverse stakeholders and benefit every American.”
DEI has come under particular scrutiny over the past year starting with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard. The ruling increases the legal risk that corporations invite by adopting policies that treat employees, vendors, and even customers differently based on immutable characteristics. A series of subsequent litigation, plus high-profile public exposure campaigns like those led by Robby Starbuck have led an increasing number of companies to abandon DEI and the HRC’s index.
DEI’s rapid downfall, the letter points out, has also been fueled by two new academic studies that have raised significant questions about heavily relied-upon claims that DEI policies improve performance in corporations. Rather than doubling down on a discredited approach that a plurality (40%) of employees say divides the workforce, the letter urges corporations to adopt policy changes that are aimed at delivering excellence in goods and services that benefit all Americans.
“DEI is a losing proposition,” said Oleka. “The American people are increasingly rejecting this morally bankrupt and discriminatory ideology, and it’s time American business leaders respond accordingly. Public employees like teachers, law enforcement officers, and fire fighters rely on state financial officers to make and recommend sound fiduciary decisions to secure their financial future. I know this firsthand, as my mother is the beneficiary of my late father's public pension from his career as a public university professor. My mother deserves the promise of my late father's pension, and so does everyone else who worked hard to earn one. The DEI regime does not deliver on that promise.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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