Following the historic election of President Barack Obama, the illusion that racism had vanished – that the Civil Rights Movement had accomplished its righteous ends – blanketed many Americans with a warm, false sense of equality and security. But upon the successful conclusion of the Obama presidency, Americans awoke to a renewed boldness in bigotry. Audaciously racist, sexist, and xenophobic sentiments celebrated a revival in President Trump’s first term. In his second, we are witnessing a proliferation.
President Trump’s indiscriminate and unlawful circumvention of the rule of law, wrapped in inflammatory rhetoric and openly racist, anti-Black agendas, has necessitated a multifaceted approach in my office’s efforts to protect the rights and liberties of Illinois residents, businesses, and government entities. We have been strategically diligent in combatting misinformation and ludicrous distortions of lawful policies and practices through direct correspondence, public legal guidance, and litigation.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, handed down in July 2023, shifted the political landscape with regard to affirmative action and other race-conscious policies. Although the Court’s decision was limited to college admissions, that same month, 13 Republican attorneys general (AGs) sent letters to Fortune 100 CEOs, admonishing them to “refrain from discriminating on the basis of race …” in their employment decisions. To illustrate their point, they cited examples of corporate programs aimed at assisting African-Americans. In response, I, along with 19 state AGs, drafted a letter to those same CEOs, condemning our counterparts’ attempts to correlate diversity measures with racial discrimination.
I have penned op-eds and released public statements to ensure that the voices of those who strive to preserve equitable opportunities in our nation are more coalesced and louder than those that would deny them. In these communications, I have consistently called out the unspoken truth: The opposition to affirmative action, diversity measures, and disparate impact protections is largely just a smokescreen for the proliferation of anti-Black racism.
As co-chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, I lead its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group. Additionally, 15 state AGs and I have issued guidance throughout our respective states to ensure that the legality, viability, and importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and practices is clearly understood. Decades of research and data demonstrate that these types of policies, procedures and programming help prevent discriminatory conduct and harassment from occurring. They also help ensure that unlawful conduct is promptly identified, reported and addressed when it does occur.
My fellow AGs and I filed a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to end billions of dollars of federal support for K-12 schools unless our states agreed to an unlawful bar of diversity programs. Because federal cuts in research dollars are profoundly damaging, we also joined other state AGs in filing suit against the National Science Foundation for limiting reimbursements for research and terminating over 1,700 grants to colleges and universities across the country. This included millions of dollars to Illinois institutions. We cannot allow cuts in federal research funding to compound health care disparities in African-American communities, whose members already experience chronic and fatal diseases at a disproportionately high rate.
The Trump Administration’s efforts to broadly dismantle federal agencies have severely impacted Illinois’ state agencies and residents as well. In response, we have challenged DOGE’s efforts to access sensitive information at the Treasury Department, the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, and widespread termination of probationary federal employees at the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, and other agencies. Along with 20 other state AGs, my office also filed suit in opposition to the “Fork in the Road” federal buyout. Despite making up 14.8% of the U.S. population, African Americans make up a disproportionately higher share of the federal civilian workforce overall at 18.5%, according to NPR (NPR.org, “Federal Work Shaped a Black Middle Class. Now It's Destabilized by Trump's Job Cuts,” April 27, 2025). Additionally, my office has challenged the dismantling of AmeriCorps and the eliminations of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Services, and the Minority Business Development Agency. We prioritized these agencies because of the critical services they provide.
Through a collusive settlement, the Trump Administration seeks to end the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which ensures contracts for infrastructure projects are awarded in a fair and nondiscriminatory way, which we will oppose. Additionally, we have challenged an executive order that requires proof of citizenship for voter registration, data sharing, and erects other barriers designed to manipulate the election process.
The Trump Administration’s recent decision to ban and restrict travel to the United States from citizens of 19 predominantly Black and Arab nations – including my family’s home country of Haiti – can only be understood as racist when compared to the inexplicable, expedited grants of asylum to white South Africans. Moreover, the administration is abandoning civil rights enforcement efforts with regard to policing and cutting violence prevention funding as well as grants that protect communities from environmental harms, all actions which disproportionately impact Black communities. We have prevailed in challenging many of these unlawful executive orders and actions, and we will continue to issue guidance and public statements in support of just outcomes.
Our efforts extend well beyond defensive litigation and counteractions to bigoted political strategies. Our AG working group has collaborated with the National Urban League and numerous civil rights advocacy organizations to affirmatively fight for equal access. African Americans and other historically marginalized groups should not have to fear the loss of citizenship, employment, legal protections, military recognition or face inequities in health care, education, or other opportunities. In this fight, we must stand together to countervail every unlawful and deceptive federal order or action that threatens to weaken our society. This is a critical time to support the important, non-partisan legal structures and precedents that enable justice and the fair administration of our laws.
