Tag: Missouri

Missouri AG sues Starbucks over ‘race-based’ hiring, DEI initiatives

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued Starbucks on Tuesday for using “race-based hiring practices” in alleged violation of anti-discrimination laws.

Bailey’s lawsuit alleges that Starbucks violates the Missouri Human Rights Act. The lawsuit highlights programs Starbucks offers to promote “BIPOC” employees, referring to Black, indigenous and people of color. It also targets the company for “setting and tracking annual inclusion and diversity goals of achieving BIPOC representation of at least 30 percent at all corporate levels and at least 40 percent of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025,” according to a draft of the lawsuit obtained by Fox News Digital.

“With Starbucks’ discriminatory patterns, practices, and policies, Missouri’s consumers are required to pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services that could be provided for less had Starbucks employed the most qualified workers, regardless of their race, color, sex, or national origin,” Bailey claimed in a statement.

Starbucks did not respond by press time to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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Starbucks is facing a lawsuit in Missouri over its hiring practices and other programs. (Getty Images)

“As Attorney General, I have a moral and legal obligation to protect Missourians from a company that actively engages in systemic race and sex discrimination,” Bailey said. “Racism has no place in Missouri. We’re filing suit to halt this blatant violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act in its tracks.”

Bailey’s lawsuit relies on the Supreme Court ruling that federal law prohibits discrimination based on race in college admissions, arguing that the decision also applies to hiring practices.

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By allegedly linking its hiring practices to race and gender quotas, Starbucks has “blatantly violated the law,” the lawsuit claims.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued Starbucks on Tuesday. (Vanessa Abbitt/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“Additionally, the company discriminates based on race and gender when it comes to board membership. All of these actions are unlawful,” Bailey’s office said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after news that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol warned the company’s employees about incoming layoffs in March.

In a message to employees, he highlighted how the company aims to deliver on its “Back to Starbucks” strategy, a series of changes announced last year that aims to enhance customers’ in-store experience, but also said it needs to strive for better efficiency, which will ultimately result in layoffs.

A Starbucks barista works at one of the company’s stores. (iStock)

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“We have recently begun the work to define the support organization for the future. We are approaching this work thoughtfully, but it will involve difficult decisions and choices. I expect that, unfortunately, we will have job eliminations and smaller support teams moving forward,” Niccol wrote.

Read the full Missouri lawsuit below

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to [email protected], or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.

February 11, 2025
Missouri AG backs up Trump’s birthright citizenship order, argues 14th Amendment has been ‘perverted’

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey defended President Donald Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship on Wednesday, arguing that the 14th Amendment clause that the policy is based on has been “perverted.”

Bailey told Fox News Digital in an interview that the 14th Amendment “was never intended to be perverted into some kind of bad incentive to violate our national immigration laws.” He went on to note the multiple attempts by President Biden’s administration to bend or break appropriations laws, saying he fought each and every one. Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship has already faced numerous legal challenges.

“Look, the 14th Amendment was drafted and ratified after the Civil War to fix the problem that an activist Supreme Court inflicted on the United States of America in the form of the Dred Scott decision,” Bailey said. “Again, the 14th Amendment was indented to protect Americans like Dred Scott.”

The 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War to acknowledge citizenship for former slaves and their descendants, was not used to confer birthright citizenship to illegal aliens until more than 100 years after it was adopted by Congress, according to legal expert Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation.

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President Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders since his inauguration on Jan. 20. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Bailey went on to defend another of Trump’s controversial orders, this one pausing the flow of federal appropriations funding. Trump signed the order this week to ensure that federal agencies were in line with the new administration’s policies before distributing funding.

“The president has the authority to determine the appropriation laws that are passed that appropriate funds toward items in the federal budget, but it’s up to the president to then carry into effect that appropriations law,” Bailey said.

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“I would ask our friends on the left, where were they when President Biden refused to build the border wall for which Congress had appropriated funds and commanded erection of new border barrier systems, period? We had to sue the Biden administration,” Bailey said, noting that Missouri led the ultimately successful effort against the previous administration.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey backed up President Donald Trump’s wave of executive orders on Wednesday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“They want to call it a constitutional crisis, but they’re silent on issues like that. They’re also silent on issues like when President Biden attempts to appropriate funds by himself without congressional authority. How many times did he try to take taxpayer money to try to pay off student loan debt?” Bailey added.

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Meanwhile, Trump’s opponents have lined up lawsuits in an effort to block executive orders across the board. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued over the birthright citizenship order last week, arguing it was unconstitutional. Twenty-two Democrat-led states joined the ACLU in its effort.

President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship is getting congressional backup from border state Republicans and others. (Getty Images)

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Trump’s opponents argue that of those born on U.S. soil, the text of the law precludes only the children of foreign diplomats from becoming U.S. citizens.

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to [email protected], or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.

January 29, 2025