In June, the Columbia City Council voted to keep diversity, equity and inclusion language in the city’s strategic plan, despite an executive order from President Donald Trump restricting DEI. The order stated that the administration would be rolling back DEI initiatives, while also implying that federal funding could be lost if cities and schools don’t comply. Now, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is investigating the city's language.
Bailey says the investigation was prompted by multiple Columbia residents submitting reports alleging racial discrimination in city-run programs. The office uses as its basis a case about college admissions: the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which Bailey asserts means race-based policies in government are unconstitutional.
Bailey also pointed to language about adopting a “racial equity toolkit” and “racial equity lens” in Columbia's strategic plan, which it adopted in 2021 and affirmed last month. Bailey claimed those frameworks have led to ambiguous and potentially discriminatory policies.
“The people of Columbia voted for transparency, but have received ambiguous, potentially racist policies that threaten punishment for city employees who challenge the DEI narrative,” Bailey said in a press release.
The city’s vote also came after correspondence from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development warning that local funding could be jeopardized if race or gender is a consideration in city planning. However, Marcia McCormick, a St. Louis University law professor, said the order currently has no power over the City of Columbia.
“Executive orders themselves are not law,” McCormick said. “They don’t use language that fits with legal definitions and seem to suggest something is the law that is not the law, which creates problems for anybody who’s trying to comply with what the federal government is gonna demand or depends on federal funding.”
Columbia city councilors had debated changing the strategic plan's language to revolve around the issue of fairness in city policy, before deciding to keep the existing language, which says, in part:
"We recognize the local government’s role in our community’s history of systemic oppression. We are committed to removing these barriers and rooting our priorities, decisions, and culture in the principles of diversity, inclusion, justice and equal access to opportunity.”
McCormick says excluding that wording could change the perception of the city’s mission.
“The acknowledgement of past harm caused and the responsibility is kind of important to justify as a moral and legal matter why the practices that promote fairness exist and why they have to be really sort of paid attention to,” McCormick said.
Further, McCormick said complying the Trump's executive order might offer little benefit.
“If you look at the demands that have been made of some really high-profile universities like Columbia University or Harvard University, they’re doing the things that the federal government is demanding, and then the federal government is continuing to penalize them,” McCormick said.
