A unanimous federal appeals panel ruled Friday that President Trump's executive orders eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs across federal agencies and contractors can go into effect — vacating a preliminary injunction that had kept the orders on ice.
The New York Post reported that the three-judge panel at the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals didn't mince words: the president has the authority to set his own policy priorities, and DEI isn't one of them.
The ruling marks the second time this same panel has swatted down attempts to block the orders. It won't be the last legal battle. But it is the clearest signal yet that the judiciary isn't going to serve as a shield for the institutional left's favorite patronage system.
Chief Judge Albert Diaz, who wrote the panel's opinion, framed the matter with unusual directness:
"President Trump has decided that equity isn't a priority in his administration and so has directed his subordinates to terminate funding that supports equity-related projects to the maximum extent allowed by law."
"Whether that's sound policy or not isn't our call. We ask only whether the policy is unconstitutionally vague for funding recipients."
The answer, evidently, was no. All three judges — Diaz, Judge Pamela A. Harris, and Judge Allison Jones Rushing — concurred that Trump has the power to do exactly what he did. The panel stated plainly that the president:
"may determine his policy priorities and instruct his agents to make funding decisions based on them."
That's not a radical legal proposition. It's the basic architecture of the executive branch. A president sets priorities. Agencies execute them. Funding follows policy. The only thing unusual here is that anyone tried to argue otherwise.
Maryland federal judge Adam B. Abelson had granted a nationwide injunction blocking the orders, which were struck down in March 2025 by the same three-judge panel. Undeterred, Judge Abelson then granted a preliminary injunction. The Fourth Circuit has now vacated that one too, finding that Abelson "erred in granting a preliminary injunction blocking the order."
The pattern is worth noting. A single district judge issued sweeping, nationwide relief against a sitting president's policy directives — not once, but twice — and was reversed both times by the same appellate panel.
The lower court didn't just disagree with the administration's policy preferences. It attempted to substitute its own judgment for the president's on a question of executive priority-setting. The Fourth Circuit said that's not how it works.
The plaintiffs challenging the executive orders included Baltimore's mayor and city council, the American Association of University Professors, and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. They claimed Trump's orders violated provisions of the First and Fifth Amendments.
Consider the plaintiff list for a moment. A city government, an academic lobbying organization, and a trade association for the very bureaucrats whose jobs depend on DEI's continued existence. These aren't disinterested constitutional scholars. They are the ecosystem — the people who staff, fund, and benefit from the programs the president ordered dismantled.
Justice Department attorneys argued that the DEI programs and initiatives ran afoul of federal civil rights legislation. The Fourth Circuit didn't need to reach that question to rule in the administration's favor, but the DOJ's framing underscores a deeper point: these programs were never the neutral, benign initiatives their defenders claim. They sorted Americans by race. That has a name in law, and it isn't "equity."
Here's the detail the left would prefer you skip over: Chief Judge Albert Diaz was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama. This wasn't a panel of Trump-appointed judges running interference for their benefactor. It was an Obama appointee reading the law and concluding that the president of the United States can, in fact, direct how the executive branch spends money.
Diaz even wrote a brief concurring opinion consoling "those disappointed by the outcome," urging them to "keep the faith" and "depend on the Constitution, which remains a beacon."
It's a gracious note, and it reveals something important. Diaz clearly has personal misgivings about the policy. He described the administration's approach in pointed terms:
"The Administration's obsession over so-called 'woke' DEI programs appears to know no bounds."
And yet he ruled the way the law demanded. That's what judicial restraint looks like — deciding cases based on what the Constitution permits, not on what a judge wishes it said. The left spent years celebrating judicial activism when courts blocked policies they opposed. Now they're learning what happens when even sympathetic judges refuse to play along.
Diaz included a lengthy footnote about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's directive ending the use of Calibri font in official State Department documents. Diaz noted that Rubio had adopted Times New Roman for what the judge considered sound reasons:
"for the entirely defensible reasons that (1) his preferred choice … present a more professional and formal typography for diplomatic correspondence, and (2) use of the Calibri font had … not meaningfully improved reader accessibility."
Diaz even added, with dry humor, that the court itself favors Rubio's font choice. But Diaz took issue with what came next — Rubio's characterization of the prior font selection as an "illegal, immoral, radical [and] wasteful [diversity initiative]." Diaz wrote:
"Had the Secretary left it there, I would applaud him, particularly since our court favors his font choice." "But leave it there, he couldn't. Instead, the Secretary lashed out at his predecessor for imposing yet another 'illegal, immoral, radical [and] wasteful [diversity initiative]' before ordering Calibri's demise."
It's a footnote about fonts. It's also a window into how thoroughly DEI had metastasized through federal agencies — to the point where even typeface selections carried ideological freight. When everything becomes a diversity initiative, nothing is safe from becoming one.
Trump signed the first of these orders on Day One, directing federal departments to cut equity-related grants and contracts. A subsequent order mandated that federal contractors certify they don't promote DEI. Both orders now stand unencumbered by judicial intervention from the Fourth Circuit.
The plaintiffs will almost certainly seek further review. The DEI industry — and it is an industry, with trade associations, dedicated officers, and billions in federal funding — doesn't surrender quietly.
But the legal terrain has shifted. Two rulings from the same appellate panel, both unanimous, both finding that the lower court overstepped. That's not a close call. That's a pattern of judicial correction.
For years, DEI programs operated in a zone of institutional untouchability. To question them was career suicide in academia, corporate America, and the federal bureaucracy. The programs multiplied not because they proved effective, but because no one with authority was willing to say stop.
Someone finally said stop. And the Fourth Circuit — led by an Obama appointee — just confirmed he had every right to say it.
