CCE Board of Director's DEIJ Committee welcomes speaker to June Board meeting

On June 9, the DEIJ Committee of CCE's Board invited Professor Stacy Hawkins of Rutgers Law School to speak to the full board at their semiannual meeting, graciously hosted by ArentFox. Prof. Hawkins is a frequent writer and sought-after speaker on the issue of employment law and diversity. She discussed the current DEIJ landscape, both in terms of the federal government and recent judicial interpretations of Title VII. Prof. Hawkins highlighted the Trump Administration's focus on race and sex based preferences and programs and practices that ‘segregate’ on the basis of race or sex. Furthermore, Prof. Hawkins spoke about how there a large increase in cases regarding DEI policies during the years has been 2023-2025, as opposed to 2003-2015 and 2015-2023. Finally, Prof. Hawkins highlighted that while the Supreme Court has rejected race-based decision making and promoted the Unitary Executive Theory, other federal courts have continued to affirm procedural and constitutional limits on executive authority and focused on impermissible race-based policies. CCE is grateful for Prof. Hawkins and for her insightful presentation on the current landscape of DEIJ.