The Trump Department of Justice, currently led by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, just announced an incredible legal victory against DEI, revealing that it has managed to force IBM into settling over allegations that IBM discriminated in favor of “diverse” candidates as it pushed its DEI policies.
This is a historic legal win, the first of its kind, and one that will likely lead ot a more general and much larger eradication of corporate and university DEI programs because of what it means: those insitutitions can and will face severe legal heat that will cost them millions upon millions of dollars if they try to discriminate to effect DEI policies.
The DOJ announced the historic victory in a press release. It began by summarizing the incredible win, saying, “Today, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the first False Claims Act resolution secured under the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which he launched in May 2025. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay the United States $17,077,043, inclusive of civil penalties, to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to comply with anti-discrimination requirements in its federal contracts due to practices the United States contends discriminated against employees and applicants for employment because of race, color, national origin, or sex.”
Continuing, it described the background of the case and why it was able to act here, noting that IBM is a federal contractor and broke the law in discriminating in favor of “diverse” candidates. It said, “Most federal contracts contain provisions that require contractors to comply with anti-discrimination requirements as to employees and applicants for employment. As a condition to being a federal contractor, the company must certify that it will not discriminate against an employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, national origin, or sex and must further certify that it will take steps to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex.”
Adding to that, the DOJ added that IBM had maintained its discriminatory DEI practices despite the law, saying, “The settlement resolves allegations that IBM failed to comply with these requirements and knowingly maintained practices that the United States contends were discriminatory employment practices.”
And describing how it did so, the DOJ noted how IBM did what many companies allegedly do, and gave “diverse” candidates an edge in the hiring and promotion process, saying, “The United States alleged that IBM took race, color, national origin, or sex into account when making employment decisions, including by using a diversity modifier that tied bonus compensation to achieving demographic targets.”
That was allegedly paired with it using diversity metrics to change interviews, stacking the odds against non-diverse candidates. It said, “The government further alleged that IBM altered interview criteria based on race or sex through the use of ‘diverse interview slates’ and other related employment practices in connection with identifying ‘diverse’ candidates for hiring, transfer, or promotion.”
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It then noted, describing yet further illegal and pro-diversity activity on IBM’s part, “Additionally, the government alleged that IBM developed race and sex demographic goals for business units and took race and sex into account when making employment decisions to achieve progress towards those demographic goals.”
Concluding the description of what IBM allegedly did, it described how it even closed off a great many opportunities for employee training and development to non-“diverse” employees, saying, “Finally, the United States alleged that IBM offered certain training, partnerships, mentoring, leadership development programs and educational opportunities only to certain employees, with eligibility, participation, access or admission limited on the basis of race or sex.”
IBM has reportedly ended those practices, and its settling is a major signal to other companies that they won’t be allowed or able to get away with such discrimination in the future. Acting AG Blanche, commenting on the situation, said, “Racial discrimination is illegal, and government contractors cannot evade the law by repackaging it as DEI. The Department launched the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to root out this misconduct, hold offenders accountable, and end this practice for good.”
Watch Hakeem Jeffries have a total meltdown about DEI in the military here: