ELI in the News

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking to go after big discrimination cases with broad impact as part of a newly implemented strategy that runs through 2026, a blueprint that…

Days after 13 Republican state attorneys general warned Fortune 100 leaders to end racial preferences in hiring practices, a group of their Democratic counterparts encouraged these same companies to continue pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) goals. Twenty-one Democratic attorneys general, across 20 states and Washington, D.C., wrote in a July 19 letter that corporate DE&I programs remain legal, applauded employers for their diversity and inclusion efforts, and condemned the Republican letter’s “tone of intimidation.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday holding that admission programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were unconstitutional could affect employers’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to stakeholders. Joelle Emerson, co-founder and CEO of DEI consulting firm Paradigm, wrote in a June 29 blog post that while the 6-3 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard would not directly govern employer practices that aim to increase diversity and inclusion, a “chilling effect on corporation action on DEI” may be a consequence in the immediate future.

On July 13, 13 Republican attorneys general wrote a letter to leaders of Fortune 100 companies warning them against using race as a factor in hiring and promotion decisions and threatening legal action if the companies did not comply. Although the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply directly to private companies, the Supreme Court’s majority opinion and the letter argue Title VI and Title VII apply the same principles.

An ongoing war of words between Republican and Democratic state attorneys general underscores the potential for legal challenges to corporate diversity, equity and inclusion measures based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s…

As a former litigator against EEOC and other employment law violations, Stephen Paskoff has a distinctive perspective on how to appropriately coach employers on DEI initiatives, compliance and “workplace civility.” Paskoff, CEO of Atlanta-based workplace training company ELI (Employment Learning Innovations), spoke with StrategicCHRO360 about his own path to DEI work, how to navigate divergent opinions on the subject and where workplace culture meets compliance.

The Supreme Court today held that consideration of race in university admissions is unconstitutional, in a highly anticipated ruling with implications for private-sector employers. Although Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College deals with education, employers and HR professionals should reassess their policies in light of the ruling to make sure they’re handling affirmative action issues such as diversity efforts properly, notes Stephen Paskoff, CEO of Employment Learning Innovations and a former EEOC trial attorney.

Conservatives hailed the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, which could drastically alter college admissions policies across the country, while Democrats rued the change.

In a landmark decision Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions—a move that could have significant reverberations across the corporate world. The 6-3 decision, which stemmed from challenges to affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, overturned decades of case law that permitted educational institutions to consider self-identified race in admissions decisions, as long as it wasn’t the only factor.

In a decision that stunned exactly no one—but that could ultimately impact not only on the diversity of higher education, but at some point, the workplace—the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a historic decision that colleges and universities could no longer use race as a factor in their admissions decisions, prompting Democrats to slam the Court and declare the decision “undermines decades of progress” while former President Trump cheered the ruling.