National Urban League v. Trump is a federal lawsuit challenging two anti-equity executive orders and one anti-gender executive order from President Trump related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and transgender people. The lawsuit was filed on February 19, 2025, by the Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
LDF and Lambda Legal argue that these and other organizations would lose federal funds and be unable to fulfill their missions if the orders are fully implemented, leaving people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities without critical — and often life-sustaining — services.
National Urban League v. Trump claims that President Trump’s executive orders violate the plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to free speech by censoring and chilling their views on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, as well as transgender people. The plaintiffs also claim that the new executive orders are so vague and without standards and criteria that the plaintiffs do not know what is and is not prohibited, in violation of their Fifth Amendment due process rights. The executive orders discriminate against people of color, women, and LGBTQ people, with particular animus toward Black people and transgender individuals, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.
The plaintiff organizations’ programs would be gravely impacted or upended by President Trump’s executive orders that call on his administration to terminate equity-related grants and forbid federally-funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs and recognizing the existence of transgender people. Together, these orders reverse decades of civil rights progress and pose an existential threat to the organizations that advocate for the civil rights of transgender people, and provide them shelter, services, and support.
On March 1, 2025, LDF and co-counsel Lambda Legal filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. The National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago are asking the District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the executive orders unlawful and unconstitutional, and to prohibit the Trump administration from implementing the orders. The organizations are also asking the court to stop the Trump administration from taking action until their legal claims are resolved, known as a preliminary injunction. If the court takes swift action, the organizations can receive federal funding while continuing to serve the Black and other communities of color, and transgender communities most in need of their services.
In January 2025, President Trump issued a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, as well any recognition of or support for transgender people, in the public and private sectors, including:
Collectively, these orders attempt to censor organizations’ views on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, as well as transgender people, because they differ from the Trump administration’s views; invite arbitrary enforcement; prevent federal grantees and contractors from serving Black people and other communities of color, and LGBTQ people, including transgender people; and violate federal statutes that prevent lawless agency actions.
Federal programs should serve everyone equally. The federal workforce is best able to serve our country if it reflects the full range of available talent. If the Trump administration fully implements these EOs, they will erect new barriers to federal programs and employment, making the federal government less able to meet the needs of the nation. The EOs also try to empower the Trump administration to interfere in private sector efforts to open up opportunity. Diversity is among our greatest strengths and essential for advancing our multi-racial democracy. These executive orders hurt all of us, especially the people who benefit directly from the targeted programs. Ultimately, these orders will weaken our economy, endanger our national security, and threaten our multi-racial democracy.
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts help organizations break down barriers to equal opportunity and comply with civil rights laws. The executive orders that are being challenged in court stretch the bounds of presidential power by forcing any public or private entity that receives federal grants and contracts—from state governments and local school districts to corporations, nonprofits, and colleges and universities—to choose between remaining true to the principles of fairness, justice, and equality or continuing to receive the federal funding they depend on. In doing so, these executive orders make America less fair, less prosperous, and less safe—to the detriment of all Americans.
LDF’s Equal Protection Initiative (EPI) is aimed at fully realizing the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection under law by safeguarding, expanding, and deepening efforts to remove and remediate barriers to opportunity for Black people in the economy, our educational systems, and other areas through race-conscious and race-neutral means.
