Trump administration challenges Illinois nonprofit diversity law

By Nate Raymond

March 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday moved to challenge a law recently enacted in Democratic-led Illinois that seeks to encourage greater diversity in the nonprofit sector by requiring charitable organizations to publicly report on the race, gender and sexual orientation of their governing bodies.

The Trump administration moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed in January in Chicago federal court by a group run by prominent affirmative action foe Edward Blum to argue that the law was unconstitutional.

The move was part of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's vow to help fulfill Republican President Donald Trump's pledge to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies from the government and the private sector.

"This intervention seeks to eliminate discrimination via DEI and ensure the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection is enforced," Acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle said in a statement.

Spokespeople for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a Democrat who is challenging the law, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit in question is one of several Blum has filed in the last two years challenging state and corporate diversity initiatives after another group he founded in 2023 convinced the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to bar the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions.

Illinois Senate Bill 2930 requires certain nonprofit organizations to disclose aggregate demographic data about their boards of directors and officers. It was signed into law in June by Democratic Governor JB Pritzker and took effect on Jan. 1.

Blum's American Alliance for Equal Rights in its lawsuit argued that the law violates the U.S. Constitution's 1st and 14th Amendments by forcing charities to speak about demographic issues they do not want to discuss and by encouraging the organizations to discriminate based on race.

The law made Illinois the first state to require nonprofits to publicize their demographic data online, according to Blum's group, with the goal of nudging foundations to diversify their boards.

The Justice Department, in a proposed complaint-in-intervention filed on Tuesday, argued that the law unlawfully encourages nonprofits to discriminate on the basis of race when selecting directors and officers in violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

"This requirement pressures nonprofits to avoid 'public shaming' by considering demographic information and selecting directors and officers on the basis of race rather than merit and the factors relevant to the goals and purposes of the nonprofits," the Justice Department argued.

In seeking to join the litigation, the Justice Department invoked a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that gives it the right to intervene in cases seeking relief from alleged denials of equal protection of the laws on account of race.

The case is American Alliance For Equal Rights v. Bennett, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 25-cv-00669.

For American Alliance For Equal Rights: Cameron Norris of Consovoy McCarthy

For the United States: Hilary Pinion of the U.S. Department of Justice

For Illinois: Karyn Bass Ehler of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General