CREATORS: Trump Administration Continues Onslaught On Diversity

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
June 16, 2026

The United States of America is facing a full-throttle assault on the underpinnings of democracy. Since Jan. 20, 2025, freedom and diversity have been under attack.

On the Trump administration's first day, they went after diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). A White House directive dated Jan. 20, 2025, announced, "The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government."

The so-called "immoral" conduct of the Biden administration consisted of promoting opportunities for all people to have a seat at the table.

According to The Hill, "The attacks on DEI threaten a wide range of policies that seek to realize the promise of civil rights law: to advance equal opportunity for all Americans. These benefit not only women, people of color and gay and transgender individuals, but also military veterans, people from impoverished or rural areas, religious minorities and first-generation professionals. DEI policies combat harassment and retaliation. They open the workplace to pregnant and caregiving employees and to persons with disabilities."

The administration has terminated DEI programs at government offices, with government contractors and grantees of federal funding. The Department of Education went so far as to require school districts to sign "oaths" that they will comply with the federal government's effort to cancel diversity.

The U.S. Supreme Court got things rolling before President Donald Trump was elected for a second time. On June 29, 2023, the Court ruled that the race-conscious admissions policies of Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful under federal law. The Court found that Harvard and North Carolina's affirmative action programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This past March, Trump signed an Executive Order eliminating "diversity, equity and inclusion" practices by Federal contractors and their subcontractors, ensuring merit-based and efficient contracting and employment.

A lawsuit was filed in federal court by the attorneys general of 19 states and Washington, D.C., alleging that more than two dozen federal agencies are adding new terms to federal contracts that bar "any racially discriminatory DEI activities" without notice or explanation of exactly what is prohibited.

The suit claims that the executive order violates contractors' free speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell told Reuters, "This is yet another example of haphazard actions designed to confuse and intimidate rather than provide clear guidance to people and businesses — in this case federal contractors."

The administration has filed lawsuits and cut or threatened to limit billions of dollars in funding to coerce colleges and universities to capitulate on issues regarding diversity, equality and inclusion.

The Trump administration has threatened many elite institutions with "potential enforcement actions" for violations of Title VI, the federal statute prohibiting discrimination, relating to antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

The administration cut $400 million in funding to Columbia University, a focal point of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses across the country. According to U.S. News and World Report, federal officials in April 2025 froze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University after warning the school that it was in violation of federal civil rights law.

Cornell University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University were among the schools that saw billions of dollars cut, frozen or suspended.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the apparent point man in the effort to crush diversity, equity and inclusion, said some of the nation's top universities are "woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination." According to Inside Higher Ed, Hegseth canceled, through a War Department order, opportunities for service members to participate in fellowships at schools like Princeton, Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown and Yale.

With the absence of diversity comes a loss of diverse perspectives, a reduction in creativity, decrease in innovation and a shocking reduction in critical thinking — creating in society, and maybe more specifically on college and university campuses, military bases and corporate boardrooms, silos of thought, values and beliefs.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book, "The Executioner's Toll," 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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PA Supreme Court finds skill games are illegal gambling

State Attorney General Dave Sunday issued a statement calling the decision a “significant victory for consumers, taxpayers and the rule of law in Pennsylvania.”

Skill games are unlawful under Pennsylvania’s Gaming Act and Crimes Code, the state Supreme Court ruled, according to The Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

The decision strikes down what the commonwealth’s highest court called a pair of “deeply flawed” lower court rulings that allowed the slot-machine-like gambling devices to spread across Pennsylvania in a legal gray area beyond the reach of gaming authorities and law enforcement.

“Thriving therein, the devices now may be found not only in taverns, restaurants, and social clubs, but also in mini-marts, gas stations, grocery stores, laundromats, pizza parlors, and various other establishments throughout Pennsylvania — even some dedicated solely to the purpose,” Justice David Wecht wrote in the 66-page decision for the 4-2 majority. 

Since the intermediate Commonwealth Court ruled in 2023 that skill games are not slot machines as defined by state law, the devices have been the subject of legislation seeking to outlaw them altogether, with lawmakers noting detrimental effects including increased crime and the exposure of children to gambling.

Pace-O-Matic, the Georgia-based company that produces the software in Pennsylvania Skill games, said it is disappointed in the decision and “strongly believes” the decision doesn’t reflect the facts that led to a string of favorable decisions for the company. 

“Sadly, this opinion will have far-reaching consequences, with more than 10,000 Pennsylvania small businesses and fraternal clubs becoming the real victims,” the company said in a statement. 

They face the prospect of giving up the games and losing an important source of revenue or enduring excessive regulation and “crippling taxation,” which would have the same result.

State Attorney General Dave Sunday issued a statement calling the decision a “significant victory for consumers, taxpayers and the rule of law in Pennsylvania.”

“The Supreme Court recognized what our office has argued from the beginning – these machines operate as gambling devices and cannot legally exist without the same oversight, regulation and accountability as other forms of legalized gaming in the Commonwealth. Pennsylvanians deserve protections that ensure games are fair, transparent and operated within the bounds of the law,” Sunday said.

The attorney general’s office, which estimates there are 70,000 skill machines in operation in the commonwealth, argued that embedding an element of so-called skill into the games does not exempt the devices from Pennsylvania gambling laws.

The decision handed down late Monday actually resolves two cases: One in which the Gaming Act’s definition of slot machine was at issue; and the second in which the seizure of three skill game machines, cash and receipts from a Harrisburg area business was overturned. 

State policymakers, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, have looked to the skill game industry as a potential source of tax revenue, proposing to legitimize and tax the proceeds of the machines at rates similar to those imposed on casinos. Details of those proposals proved a sticking point in recent budget negotiations.

Wecht noted that many placed “reasonable reliance” on the Commonwealth Court’s decisions. 

“We are further mindful of the potential disturbance that our correction of the prevailing case law may cause to business owners and other good-faith participants in the industry,” the lead opinion says.

For that reason, the court stayed the decision for four months, during which no law enforcement agency is to take action against owners and operators of the machines.

He also wrote that the court reached its decision as a result of interpreting existing statutes and that the General Assembly could take whatever action it deems appropriate.

Wecht took the unusual step of stating the court’s decision is not an endorsement or based on any policy position regarding the machines, adding that manifesting the public policy of the commonwealth is the legislature’s purview, not the judiciary’s.

“To put it more plainly, how one feels about access to ‘skill games’ or other types of slot machine — or about the broader legalization and normalization of gambling in our society, for that matter — is irrelevant. This is, rather, a matter of straightforward application of existing statutory law,” Wecht said.

He noted the General Assembly amended the Gaming Act’s definition of “slot machine” to include “skill slot machine” as a device in which the skill of the player rather than the element of chance is the main factor in the outcome. It also defined a hybrid in which the combination of skill and chance determine the outcome. 

Lawyers for Pace-O-Matic, the predominant distributor of skill game software, argued that the company’s games could be won every time by a skillful player. 

Wecht said the definition of skill slot machines makes “abundantly clear” the skill element of the machines is not legally sufficient. 

“That is to say, as it concerns their unregulated operation in unlicensed facilities throughout Pennsylvania, it is not this Court that declares “skill games” to be unlawful. Rather, it is the General Assembly that did so nearly a decade ago,” he said.

Justice Christine Donohue issued a separate opinion concurring in the result of the majority decision. Justice Kevin Brobson wrote a concurring and dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Sallie Mundy, in which he agreed that the machines are covered by the Crimes Code but not the Gaming Act. 

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Judge appointed by Trump seething at administration conduct

 A federal judge in Florida appointed by President Donald Trump just nine months ago seethed at the administration in a new ruling, accusing them of cooking up a flimsy excuse to bypass his own judgment in favor of a career official within the administration itself, wrote Matthew Chapman.

Judge Kyle Dudek's ruling concerned the immigration detention case of Dmitrii Iastrebov, a noncitizen who has been sitting in lockup without a proper hearing — only for the Trump administration to argue that the administration's own appointed immigration judge, rather than the U.S. district judge, should be the final word on the matter.

This case, wrote Dudek, "borders on the surreal ... an immigration judge refused to hold the ordered hearing, claiming Iastrebov is not covered by § 1226(a) and thus ineligible for bond. Instead of defending this Court’s mandate, the Government’s counsel acquiesced in that refusal and waived any administrative appeal. Now, faced with a renewed habeas petition, the Government casually announces that its previous concession 'was in error' and asks this Court to reverse itself and hold that Iastrebov is instead subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225."

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Autocracy Watch: USPS ordered not to deliver mail-in ballots in Democrat states

State election officials could soon face a stark choice: Hand over voter lists to the Trump administration or risk losing Postal Service delivery for mail-in ballots, reported CNN.

That dilemma stems from newly proposed USPS rules that seek to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed this spring to crack down on mail-in voting. If courts let the order stand, it would give the federal government an unprecedented role in elections — and could put even more voter data in the hands of Trump officials searching for supposed election fraud.

The proposed rules lay out new conditions that states would have to meet to send ballots through the mail, including giving the agency lists of all voters set to receive mail ballots.

So far, 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia are suing, as are Democratic Party leaders and non-partisan voter advocacy groups, setting up a potentially active summer of high-stakes judicial rulings.

The Trump administration cleared an initial legal hurdle last month, when a federal judge in Washington, DC, who is overseeing one set of the cases, declined to block Trump’s executive order, allowing the Postal Service to begin implementing it.

The Democratic Party groups are asking an appeals court to speed up its review of that decision, warning that voters around the country could be disenfranchised in this year’s midterm elections if the proposal is not blocked.

In an interview with CNN, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat whose state is part of the coalition that filed a legal challenge in Boston, said that if courts rule for the Trump administration, “Then you will see a virtual elimination of mail-in voting, unless the states supply voter lists to the federal government.”

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Federal judge bars $1.8 billion Trump administration slush fund

A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration until further notice from setting up a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people claiming to have been unfairly prosecuted by the government, saying that her order was needed because of mixed messages about the scheme from President Trump, reported The New York Times.

The ruling by the judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, was the strongest effort to date by anyone in government to hold the administration to its word that the proposal to create the fund had actually been set aside. While Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, told Congress last week that the fund would not move forward, Mr. Trump has been much more circumspect, insisting that he still loves the idea and believes that people who suffered in court at the hands of the government should get financial compensation.

Judge Brinkema seized on the president’s statements during a hearing in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., suggesting they left open the possibility that the fund could be brought back to life despite Mr. Blanche’s promises and assertions made in court papers that the fund was no longer moving forward.

“We just don’t have the absolute certainty that this fund won’t rear its head in another form,” she said.

Judge Brinkema did, however, give the administration a way out. She said she would consider rescinding her order if, within a week, the Justice Department sent her a declaration, filed under penalty of perjury, that the fund was dead once and for all. She told Andrew Block, a department lawyer who appeared in court for the government, that the declaration needed to be signed by Mr. Blanche and Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary.

Judge Brinkema’s ruling extended a temporary pause on the fund that she had put in place at the end of May. And it came two days after a federal judge in Washington, Richard J. Leon, refused to issue his own order putting the fund on hold.

Judge Leon took the Justice Department at its word that the plan had been shelved, but still warned the administration not to play games with him by pretending it was dead, if it was not.

“Don’t play possum with this court,” he said.

The fund has created a political headache for the White House almost from the moment it was first announced on May 18 — in no small measure because of concerns that it could be used to funnel taxpayer money to hundreds of rioters prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Judge Brinkema underscored those concerns by reading aloud a passage about payments being made to the rioters that appeared in a brief criticizing the fund that was submitted to her last week by two senators, Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana.

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Idaho transitions to firing squad as primary means of execution

Don't get all worked up about a stream of grisly state sponsored killings -- Idaho has executed three people in the last 50 years 

Trained members of Idaho law enforcement with demonstrated firearms proficiency are expected to fill slots for carrying out the death penalty by firing squad as the state prison system transitions to the controversial execution method next month, reported the Idaho Statesman

Don't get all worked up about a stream of grisly state sponsored killings.  Idaho has executed three people in the last 50 years. Six volunteers certified for no less than three years apiece through Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, will be recruited to ensure the Idaho Department of Correction is ready to comply with a state law that prioritizes shooting prisoners to death over lethal injection starting July 1.

No one on the team may have faced disciplinary action over firearms, use of force or related conduct over the prior year, according to new execution protocols the prison system released this week.

State prison leadership has sought to avoid needing to rely on volunteers among corrections officers to pull the triggers in an execution, IDOC Director Bree Derrick previously said. The agency explored the possibility of a remote-operated system as Idaho becomes the only U.S. state with a firing squad as its lead execution method, but one did not come to fruition.

That left IDOC to instead devise a human firing squad, the agency said. “The Idaho Department of Correction recognizes the gravity of carrying out a court-ordered execution and the responsibility that comes with it,” Derrick said in a statement to the Idaho Statesman. “The department is committed to fulfilling this responsibility with professionalism, respect, and strict adherence to the law. Our procedures are designed to ensure that any execution is conducted in a secure, orderly, and dignified manner while safeguarding the rights of all individuals involved and maintaining the safety and security of staff, witnesses, and the public.”

The firing squad will consist of three primary shooters and two alternates, with a team leader who will check, maintain and load a live round into each of the IDOC-owned rifles used for executions. None of the team members may have a blood or legal relationship to the condemned prisoner or their family, or the victims or their relatives. The identities of all firing squad members will be confidential, per state law. 

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Wisconsin case tests speedy trial rule after man sits in jail for 14 months without an attorney

If the state can’t find defense attorneys for criminal defendants for months on end, the charges should be dismissed due to the violation of their constitutional rights, a national defense lawyers group argues, reported WTAQ-WLUK. .

The issue stems from the case of James Grandberry, a suspect in a major Chicago-to-Green Bay drug ring investigation. He sat in jail for more than 14 months without an attorney or a preliminary hearing, which is usually held within 10 days.

Grandberry, 36, faces 14 charges, including three of manufacture or delivery of fentanyl, amphetamine and cocaine. He was arrested July 11, 2024, and charged about two weeks later. Prosecutors have said this case was the state’s first wiretap investigation for fentanyl and at least 47 people are facing charges. Grandberry now has an attorney and has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set. He returns to court June 22 for a status conference.

Before an attorney was appointed, however, Grandberry’s preliminary hearing was postponed 10 times.

Grandberry’s motion to have his case dismissed was denied by a judge. Grandberry then filed what’s known as an “interlocutory appeal” asking a higher court for the case to dismissed, arguing his Sixth Amendment rights were violated by the delay. Usually, the appeals court take up issues of law after a case has been completed, but this mechanism allows for an appeal while the case is still pending. In August, the Court of Appeals said it would hear the case. This appeal case continues, even though an attorney was eventually found for Grandberry and his case is now underway.

Attorneys for both Grandberry and prosecutors have filed arguments with the court. Other groups have asked to file what are known as “friend of the court” briefs, offering their opinions on the case. The first one was filed Thursday.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers argues the remedy should be dismissing the charges outright, without giving the state the ability to refile the charges. Refiling of charges was allowed in another case, where Nhia Lee was jailed 113 days with a preliminary hearing.

“Only dismissal with prejudice accomplishes something useful. It tells all that egregious violations of due process beget serious consequences,” wrote attorney George Burnett.

And while it isn’t the prosecutors’ fault Grandberry didn’t get an attorney, it is the state of Wisconsin’s issue, the NACDL brief argues.

The crisis the Supreme Court described therefore emanates from the State’s policy decision, so the consequences of that decision should fall on the State, not those it accuses. Funding lawyers to represent those accused of crimes is neither politically urgent nor electorally popular for now, prisoners like James Grandberry bear, through no fault of their own, the full ramifications of the State’s unwillingness to meet its constitutional obligations. That must change.”

The Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the State Public Defender’s Office also plan to file briefs, court records show. It will likely be several months before the Court of Appeals rules in the case.

Grandberry’s case isn’t the only one to challenge the delays in appointing attorneys. In 2022, eight current and former inmates filed suit in Brown County, seeking an order demanding quicker appointment of counsel. The state public defender’s office has also spent more than a year making over 5,000 contacts, trying to find an attorney for Jordan Leavy-Carter, who is charged in connection with the shooting death of a five-year-old.

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