Recent EEOC and DOJ activity may require employers to modify their Title VII compliance strategy. This is because EEOC’s newly released 2025-2029 National Enforcement Plan significantly shifts the agency’s priorities from its prior 2024-2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan.
New EEOC enforcement playbook:
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The new EEOC plan prioritizes intentional discrimination and cases of broader impact, targets programs labeled "diversity, equity, and inclusion" or "similar euphemisms," and explicitly aligns the agency with the president's policies on DEI, “anti-American discrimination,” and gender identity.
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Employers can expect continued scrutiny of religious accommodation, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act liability, national origin issues, and gender identity and sex-based classifications.
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The agency is positioning itself to prioritize cases that have broad impact or resolve significant legal questions. So, expect more high profile, headline-grabbing anti-DEI cases.
In a new memo, the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the EEOC's longstanding disparate-impact guidelines are unconstitutional. Disparate-impact liability applies when a neutral practice still produces unequal outcomes for protected groups. The memo pushes employers toward race-based decisions to avoid liability.
The bottom line: The memo gives employers more cover, but it does not change the law, which still recognizes disparate impact liability. The Trump administration will not bring these cases forward, but private plaintiffs and state civil rights agencies will.
