“If your company previously resorted to racial preferences or naked quotas to offset its bigotry, that discriminatory path is now definitively closed,” according to the letter obtained by The Washington Post. The signatories were 13 Republican attorneys general, led by the chief legal officers in Kansas and Tennessee.
The attorneys general on Thursday urged the companies to immediately cease “any unlawful race-based quotas or preferences your company has adopted for its employment and contracting practices.”
“If you choose not to do so, know that you will be held accountable — sooner rather than later — for your decision to continue treating people differently because of the color of their skin,” the letter continued.
The ruling itself does not affect a company’s ability to take race into account when considering candidates, but legal experts have warned that the decision could impact how courts analyze legal challenges regarding recruiting, hiring and promotion. The ruling could put companies in a more tenuous position when it comes to such cases, and Thursday’s letter serves as a warning sign of how seriously some states may pursue action.
In a blog post after the ruling, Morgan Lewis, a law firm specializing in labor and employment litigation, said organizations should consider the “potential legal and reputational risk” of their hiring practices and proactively reevaluate their existing programs related to diversity and inclusion.
The ruling served as a double-whammy for the tech industry, which has historically struggled to hire a diverse workforce and was already losing minority talent amid widespread layoffs. Still, immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision, several companies doubled down on their commitment to their hiring practices.
Nearly 70 companies signed an amicus brief last year urging the high court to keep affirmative action in place. They warned that less diverse student bodies could lead to less diverse pools of talent. The brief — signed by companies including Apple, Google, Airbnb, Lyft and Uber — said that DEI efforts strongly rely on university admissions programs “that lead to graduates educated in racially and ethnically diverse environments.”
Representatives for Apple, Amazon and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
