DEI Is Not Free Speech
It’s great that the Left has rediscovered the First Amendment, but that’s not really the issue here.
Free speech used to be one of the core principles of the American Left. They were called liberals because they believed in virtually unfettered individual behavior. In the last couple of decades, however, liberals have become leftists because they want to squelch the speech of political opponents. Censorship is their new prized virtue.
So you can imagine my amusement when viewing this Washington Post headline: “Trump’s opponents decry a sweeping crackdown on free speech.” Hmm, I wonder what that’s about, I mused this morning.
The subtitle explains, “In an effort to stamp out ‘woke’ racial and gender messages, critics say, the president is running afoul of the First Amendment.”
Reality check: Race-based selection is not the same thing as free speech. Neither is forcing schools to allow males to use female facilities or join their sports teams. Stopping discrimination based on leftist intersectionality criteria is not “running afoul of the First Amendment.”
Nevertheless, leftists are challenging Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of the administration based on precisely those accusations.
“You can claim that you are championing expression and are a free-speech supporter, but saying those things doesn’t change what are a number of steps that add up to government censorship,” complained Michelle Deutchman, executive director of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement at the University of California. “The government is using content-based and even viewpoint-based discrimination to make decisions about what words and thoughts people can express.”
Critics also point to Trump’s spat with the Associated Press over its deadnaming of the Gulf of America, as well as his dustup with the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Now, I readily grant that Trump has issued executive orders and other directives that, in some cases, prevent people from saying whatever the heck they want to say. For instance, you can’t refuse to name something according to U.S. law and expect to retain special access to the Oval Office. But in doing so, he’s defending constitutional principles of limited government and, yes, free speech.
Take the school example above. The Left has forced schools — often willingly — to permit all manner of discrimination and falsehood to dictate the rights and even the safety of young women. If those girls are bold enough to speak out, they’ll tell you they don’t want to play sports against or use the same locker rooms and restrooms as boys. If they do speak out, the Rainbow Mafia is there as enforcer.
The Post uses one example in which U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson blocked multiple Trump orders targeting DEI programs in federal contracts. Requiring that recipients of federal funds disavow DEI “on its face” infringes free speech, Abelson wrote last month, and threatening legal action when companies promote DEI is “facially unconstitutional.”
On the contrary, the Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, which is precisely what DEI does. Segregationists pointed to freedom of speech, too. Certainly, no one should be guaranteed federal money — i.e., taxpayer dollars — if they discriminate.
Hypocrisy is definitely at play here. Leftists have no problem issuing edicts about race and sex (or their preferred malleable word “gender”). They zealously enforced tyrannical policies about COVID, including suppressing the speech of anyone who used certain words or argued against the effectiveness of measures most people now know were ineffective. Hardly a Democrat exists who wouldn’t infringe the Second Amendment at every opportunity.
That they have suddenly discovered the virtues of the First Amendment is almost laughable.
Again, however, this is not a First Amendment issue — their premise is wrong. This is not about Trump attacking people because he disagrees with them, which is how some are framing it. It’s about preventing the wasteful spending of taxpayer money on left-wing ideological projects. It’s about preserving truth from the assault of lies. It’s about upholding equal rights under the law.
