The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released a new National Enforcement Plan that replaces the agency's 2024-2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan and signals a dramatic shift in how the federal government will approach workplace discrimination cases. Announced June 4 under Chair Andrea Lucas, the plan marks a clear departure from Biden-era priorities and aligns the commission with Trump administration policy objectives. The framework emphasizes what the agency calls "overt" discrimination and places diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives squarely in its enforcement crosshairs.

The plan identifies several specific practices as top enforcement targets. The EEOC will prioritize cases involving job advertisements and recruiting materials that explicitly encourage or discourage applicants based on protected characteristics, including postings seeking "diverse candidates" or practices favoring certain visa holders in ways that could constitute national-origin discrimination. DEI programs—or what the agency describes as "similar euphemisms"—face particular scrutiny when they involve race- or sex-based quotas, aspirational goals functioning as quotas, diverse-slate requirements, diverse hiring panels, demographic reporting practices, or executive compensation tied to diversity objectives. The commission also plans to focus litigation around recent Supreme Court decisions, including cases addressing majority-plaintiff claims, the injury threshold for actionable employment claims, race-conscious decision-making, and religious accommodations.

According to the plan, the EEOC will examine workplace rights involving LGBTQ-related issues by clarifying the scope of the Supreme Court's Bostock v. Clayton County decision. The agency intends to explore questions about single-sex spaces, employers' ability to provide such spaces, the "right to express the binary nature of sex," and religious accommodation requests based on sincerely held beliefs. Chair Lucas stated that "the NEP will restore evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans," framing the shift as a return to consistent application of anti-discrimination law. The plan will guide the agency's enforcement, litigation, outreach, education, and technical assistance efforts moving forward.

The enforcement approach represents a fundamental change in discrimination theory priorities. While acknowledging that disparate-impact liability remains federal law, the EEOC states that intentional discrimination—or disparate treatment—is a "more egregious" form of discrimination. The commission will prioritize disparate-treatment theories, including pattern-or-practice claims, and seek to minimize reliance on disparate-impact analyses whenever possible. This marks a notable break from previous enforcement strategies that frequently used disparate-impact frameworks to challenge neutral workplace policies affecting protected groups disproportionately. The position reflects Lucas's longstanding view that Title VII prohibits employment decisions based on protected characteristics regardless of the employer's intent.

Perhaps most striking is the plan's explicit statement that the EEOC is an executive branch agency that will use its enforcement authority to advance the policy objectives and executive orders of the Trump administration. For employers, the practical implications are immediate: compliance reviews may need recalibration around recruiting materials, DEI initiatives, hiring and promotion practices, accommodation procedures, and workplace policies. The plan doesn't change underlying federal anti-discrimination laws, but it provides the clearest signal yet of where the Lucas-led EEOC will focus agency resources—and where employers are most likely to face scrutiny in the coming years.