Indiana Attorney General Calls Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion 'Racial Discrimination'

5 months ago

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) delivers his opening remarks to the House Oversight Committee.

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Transcript

00:00When the red light comes on, your five minutes has expired, and we ask that you please wrap

00:04up.

00:05I now recognize General Rokita for his opening statement.

00:09Thank you, Chair Comer, Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez, and members of the committee for inviting

00:13me to speak here today.

00:14It's good to see you.

00:16My name is Todd Rokita, and I serve as the Attorney General for the State of Indiana,

00:20an office where I manage over 400 employees.

00:24And prior to serving as Indiana's Chief Legal Officer, I spent several years in the private

00:28sector as General Counsel for a company that served other companies, each having over 100

00:33employees.

00:34And before that, as you mentioned, Chair, I served as a member of Congress for eight

00:36years as the Subcommittee Chairman on the Educational Workforce, where I served under

00:40many chairmen, including the one here today.

00:42So just like that, I'm sure I'll be corrected a few times today as well.

00:47She does that a lot.

00:48Like I said, it's good to see everybody.

00:51I also had the honor of serving for eight years as Indiana's Secretary of State, where

00:55I manage the day-to-day operations of, well, near 100 employees.

00:59So I believe these experiences, in short, give me some unique insights in how our laws

01:03regulate and restrict the use of race and sex in our workplace.

01:07You know, the United States was founded on a basic idea, as self-evident today as it

01:12was 250 years ago, and that is all men are created equal.

01:17That idea is embodied in the 14th Amendment as well, which requires state governments

01:21to provide equal protection of the laws to all persons.

01:26The Fifth Amendment imposes similar constraints on the federal government.

01:29Likewise, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits invidious discrimination in

01:34the workplace, advances the goal of equal treatment in the private as well as public

01:39sectors.

01:40So despite the importance our nation places on equal protection under the law, corporate

01:45America and academic institutions have all too frequently embraced the notion, completely

01:50at odds with our founding principles, that to remediate racial discrimination of the

01:55past, we must somehow engage in racial discrimination now.

02:00For decades, that misguided notion was put into practice through affirmative action programs

02:05on college campuses.

02:06More recently, it has infiltrated workplaces in the form of diversity, equity, and inclusion,

02:12or DEI, initiatives that have become fashionable in the C-suites of many of America's largest

02:18companies.

02:20Such racial discrimination ignores the observation that Chief Justice Roberts made back in 2007,

02:26that the only way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating

02:34on the basis of race.

02:36In other words, eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.

02:41And that's exactly what the Supreme Court recently declared in Students for Fair Admissions.

02:47In that case, the court held that the admissions programs of Harvard College and the University

02:50of North Carolina violated the Constitution and civil rights laws because they relied

02:55on race to decide which students get admitted.

02:58The implications of the decision extend beyond the academic world, because picking winners

03:02and losers based on race is wrong and illegal in any context.

03:08It follows that DEI initiatives in corporate America that require race-based hiring practices

03:13are in most, if not all cases, likely violations of Title VII.

03:20So that's why last year I, along with 12 other State Attorneys General, sent a letter to

03:24Fortune 100 company CEOs reminding them of their obligations under the civil rights laws.

03:30In our letter, we stressed that these companies cannot discriminate based on race, including

03:34taking discriminatory actions under the guise of DEI.

03:40As Judge Robert Bork once said, to make a distinction between persons on racial grounds

03:45is utterly irrational.

03:48That is the bedrock, nonnegotiable principle that animates all of our civil rights laws,

03:53and there is no DEI exception to that in the Constitution or in Title VII.

03:59Our civil rights laws also guarantee the equal treatment of men and women, irrespective of

04:03sex.

04:04In Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court narrowly extended this principle, mistakenly

04:11in my humble view, to hold that employers violate Title VII if they fire or refuse to

04:16hire an individual because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

04:20Critically, the Court's decision only concerned the hiring and firing decisions and declined,

04:26specifically declined, to address other issues that employers may encounter.

04:32To address some of the questions left unanswered in Bostock, my office recently issued an advisory

04:37opinion concerning the use of preferred pronouns in the workplace.

04:42We determined that neither State nor Federal law requires a coworker to use the preferred

04:46pronouns and name of a fellow employee, and that an employer is likely not liable for

04:52a supposed misuse of pronouns.

04:55No Federal court has reached, and no reasonable interpretation of Title VII would support,

05:00a different conclusion.

05:03So in summary, as we continue to deal with the fallout of the Bostock decision, it is

05:07of the utmost importance that we address questions like this and give employers clarity about

05:12what the law requires.

05:13I am committed to ensuring that all workplaces in Indiana appropriately balance religious

05:18liberty, freedom of speech, safety, collegiality, and productivity.

05:23And Chairman, it's just an honor to be here and seeing my friends and colleagues again.

05:26Thank you very much.

05:27Thank you.

05:28I now recognize Mr. Berry for his opening statement.

Indiana Attorney General Calls Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion 'Racial Discrimination'

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