Judge partially blocks Trump's anti-DEI executive orders

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge issued a mixed-bag ruling on Monday that prevents federal agencies from enforcing key parts of three Trump** ** executive orders about “illegal DEI” and “gender ideology” on multiple LGBTQ+ organizations nationwide.

In his 52-page order, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar said the White House’s recent orders — which instructed federally funded organizations to terminate funding for all “equity-related” grants or any programs that promote “gender ideology” — were overly vague and reflected an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech.

“While the executive requires some degree of freedom to implement its political agenda, it is still bound by the Constitution,” the Barack Obama appointee ruled.

The judge’s ruling is part of a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which claims the executive orders have affected its funding, violated its due process and free speech rights and unlawfully exceeded presidential authority through unconstitutionally vague wording.

Without relief from the courts, Tigar said the foundation and its co-plaintiffs would face an “imminent” loss of federal funding that previously allowed them to provide lifesaving healthcare and support services to marginalized LGBTQ+ populations.

“This loss not only threatens the survival of critical programs but also forces Plaintiffs to choose between their constitutional rights and their continued existence,” Tigar said.

The judge further faulted the government for trying to “weaponize congressionally appropriated funds” to single out protected communities like the LGBTQ+ population, often in direct violation of statutes under which they received funding.

Tigar ultimately granted the foundation’s requests to bar enforcement of these funding provisions, finding that it was likely to succeed on claims that its rights were violated under the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment and the separation of powers doctrine.

However, the ruling wasn’t a total win for the LGBTQ+ plaintiff organizations.

The judge did not block one of the White House’s provisions that required the foundation to verify its DEI initiatives comply with federal anti-discrimination statutes, saying the plaintiffs haven’t shown that this part of the order goes beyond targeting programs that violate federal law.

Additionally, of the total nine provisions challenged across President Donald Trump’s executive orders, the judge ruled the LGBTQ+ organizations lacked standing to challenge five of them, including one which orders that “intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females” are designated by sex and not identity.

The foundation celebrated the ruling in a statement.

“This is a critical win — not only for the nine organizations we represent, but for LGBTQ communities and people living with HIV across the country,” attorney Jose Abrigo of Lambda Legal, who represented  the foundation, said. “The court blocked anti-equity and anti-LGBTQ executive orders that seek to erase transgender people from public life, dismantle DEI efforts, and silence nonprofits delivering life-saving services.

Dr. Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco A.I.D.S. Foundation, said he was “relieved” and that the court’s action gave his team the will to keep fighting the lawsuit.

“These policies threatened to erase access to lifesaving HIV and health services for transgender, nonbinary, and queer people across the country. That isn’t just bad policy — it’s cruel, and it’s inhumane,” TerMeer said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare, social services and advocacy for LGBTQ+ communities, including many services specifically serving transgender individuals, and relies heavily on federal funding to carry out its missions.

The foundation is joined in its lawsuit by eight other LGBTQ+ organizations from across the nation, including health clinics, community centers and historical societies.

The foundation is suing the federal government over Executive Order 14168 — “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” — as well as two other executive orders on DEI policies, which it claims violate the First and 14th Amendments.

Without a court order preventing enforcement, the foundation argued that Trump’s orders threaten to chill LGBTQ+ organizations from mentioning or placing transgender terms in their practices on pain of losing their federal funding.

At a previous hearing, the judge grilled government lawyers over the vagueness of the executive orders.

This case was filed in the Northern District of California.