by Elaine Chen
On June 30, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced it had rescinded foundational guidances regarding voluntary workplace affirmative action plans. In addition to doing away with the Commission’s longstanding (since 1979) Guideline on affirmative action, the agency eliminated Section 607 of the EEOC Compliance Manual, in effect since 1981, that explained how affirmative action plans can be legally deployed in the workplace. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has attempted to justify these actions by asserting that those sources of authority were inconsistent with Title VII and Supreme Court precedent.
It is important to note that the EEOC’s rescission of these guidances does not change the law in any way. Employers may still implement affirmative action programs consistent with those guidances, pursuant to long-settled Supreme Court authority the EEOC has no power to overrule. The primary – and serious – impact of these rescissions is that employers will not have the benefit of those guidances in order to ensure that the affirmative action programs they do implement will be in compliance with the law, and that they will not face liability for their efforts to rectify the effects of historical and structural employment discrimination and to create diverse and highly qualified workforces.
The EEOC’s action is another instance of the Trump administration’s broad-sweeping attacks on initiatives that strengthen the civil rights and workplace visibility of marginalized groups. Indeed, the current Trump regime has worked hard to fulfill its promise to eliminate public and private diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, ban books containing materials related to race, racism and LGBTQ+ issues in public school districts, and direct agencies to challenge a legal framework that has historically been key in advancing workplace antidiscrimination law.
Despite the EEOC’s claim that this is a return to “colorblind” anti-discrimination protections, it is at odds with decades of caselaw and civil rights movements that fought to make a historically oppressive system more equitable and accessible for all. There is no way to assess and correct the historical disenfranchisement of minority communities through a “colorblind” lens. As former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Blackmun put it, “[i]n order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”
Though the EEOC’s rescissions are sure to complicate the landscape for employers nationwide who still wish to enact or continue voluntary affirmative action plans, California state regulations still allow employers to implement such programs in certain circumstances. Legal Aid at Work condemns this act by the EEOC and stands in solidarity with the minority workers who may be unfairly targeted by the agency’s actions.