4 Employer Takeaways from High Court’s Admissions Ruling

Andrew Turnbull spoke to Law360 about the Supreme Court’s blockbuster decision ruling race-based affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional, and how it may prompt employers to revise their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and may spur an uptick in discrimination lawsuits challenging those initiatives.

“I think when most everyday people, employees, hear the term ‘affirmative action’ and they hear the Supreme Court overruled that, in their minds, they may say, ‘Well, a company can’t do these DEI or affirmative action programs themselves,’” Andrew said. “If they’re inclined to challenge those in the first place…I think you may see people more willing to kind of challenge those types of programs in court.”

Andrew noted that there are interest groups not dissimilar from the group that brought the Harvard and University of North Carolina cases that are taking aim at employers’ DEI programs and actively looking for test cases to pursue, adding that it wouldn’t be surprising if more of those types of cases are on tap.

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