Federal Workers Sue After Trump-Led Purge of DEI Roles

A newly filed lawsuit alleges that more than a thousand federal employees were terminated in connection with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) roles under the leadership of Donald Trump — prompting accusations of constitutional and civil-service violations.

According to Reuters, four named plaintiffs in the class-action complaint assert that executive orders issued by President Trump mandating the elimination of DEI programs and offices at federal agencies unlawfully targeted employees who supported or engaged with efforts to advance women, racial minorities or other legally protected groups. According to the filing, the mass firings violated the First Amendment rights of federal workers and contravened laws prohibiting workplace discrimination.

The plaintiffs worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health and the Office of Personnel Management. The complaint names those agencies and over 20 others.

One plaintiff, Mahri Stainnak, had previously filed a case with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board in March, which was dismissed in July. The current lawsuit — Fell v. Trump, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:25-cv-4206 — seeks to represent a class of all federal employees who lost their jobs as a result of the DEI-related executive directives.

Trump moved quickly after taking office to dismantle federal DEI programs, order the firing of diversity officers across agencies and halt grant funding for programs he deemed undermining merit-based hiring. His critics argue that DEI efforts remain essential to addressing systemic discrimination, while supporters of his actions claim DEI initiatives discriminate against white men and weaken meritocracy.

The government has yet to issue a public response to the complaint. Legal experts note that the case could test the boundaries of federal protections for civil-service employees, constitutional free-speech and association rights, and the permissible scope of agency workforce restructuring tied to political directives.