Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Texas and Florida attorneys general separately issue opinions on ‘race-based state action’ and DEI on MLK Day, (Jan 20, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “issued a first-of-its-kind legal opinion,” his office reports, “unparalleled in its size and scope, declaring the unconstitutionality of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI”) policies and programs in Texas government.”

On the federal holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday, state attorneys general in Texas and Florida publicly released legal opinions intended to dismantle DEI frameworks and affirmative action within their respective states.

Texas AG’s opinion. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton shared an opinion that “declares decades’ worth of DEI frameworks—memorialized in over 100 woke state laws—unconstitutional, including DEI programs in schools and state and local governments across Texas.”

“This action to dismantle DEI in Texas helps fulfill the vision articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr. when he dreamed that his children would one day live in a nation where they were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” declared Paxton, who refers to DEI as a “broken worldview” falling “[u]nder the tacit guise of sociological reparations.”

The first third of the 74-page document recounts Paxton’s understanding of the “arc of our nation’s commitment to first principles,” while the remainder focuses on the “extent to which DEI has unlawfully invaded both the public and private sectors alike,” according to the Texas AG.

Public sector.In the public sector, he puts forth the argument that the state’s historically underutilized business (HUB) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs are unconstitutional. He also argues that programs “targeting minority- and women-owned businesses for government largesse also fail strict scrutiny” and that appointment and employment preferences are also unconstitutional. “Beyond contracting, procurement, government appointments, and employment,” the opinion continues, “Texas statutes also embed race- and sex-conscious preferences throughout higher education, public parks funding, and economic development initiatives.” He concludes, “Collectively, these provisions constitute discrimination for its own sake—failing strict scrutiny.”

Private sector. Regarding the private sector, Paxton points to present-day DEI initiatives in five areas as problematic, including hiring and promotion processes, compensation packages, internal groups and training programs, external commercial relationships, and governance structure and public goals. He argues that these practices “invite four categories of liability under state and federal law” including Title VII, the TCHRA, Section 1981, and federal and state securities law.

Florida. Attorney General James Uthmeier also issued an opinion yesterday, in which he contends that state laws requiring race-based state action are presumptively unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and Article I, section 2, of Florida's Constitution.

In his less lengthy opinion, he identifies the Florida laws that he has concluded discriminate on the basis of race, including (1) a state law that requires agency heads to institute affirmative action plans that include goals for race-based hires; (2) provisions relating to government contracting and setting race-based “spending goal[s]”; and (3) laws containing “various explicit and implicit quota requirements for minority representation on different boards, councils, and other similar entities.”

MainStory: TopStory ESGNews StateLegislation StateRegulations AgencyNews LitigationNewsTrends IndividualRights Discrimination RaceDiscrimination SexDiscrimination GCNNews