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Tag: sues

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

    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.

    TRUMP ADMIN HITS BACK AS ACLU LAUNCHES LAWSUIT ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: ‘READY TO FACE THEM’

    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 AG Andrew Bailey

    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.

    Starbucks barista working behind the counter

    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.

  • Federal workers’ union sues to stop DOGE activity at CFPB

    Federal workers’ union sues to stop DOGE activity at CFPB

    Jack Otter and the ‘Barron’s Roundtable’ panelists discuss how DOGE is shaking up Washington, D.C.

    A union representing federal workers filed a pair of lawsuits against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Russell Vought, asking a court to declare recent actions by him unlawful and to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from gaining access to employee information. 

    The filings by the National Treasury Employees Union come after Vought told staff at the CFPB not to issue any new rules and to stop any new investigations, among other directives. He also sent a letter to the Federal Reserve requesting no money for the CFPB’s third quarter of fiscal year 2025. 

    “It is substantially likely that these initial directives are a precursor to a purge of CFPB’s workforce, which is now prohibited from fulfilling the agency’s statutory mission,” read one of the lawsuits filed in federal court.

    The other alleges that the CFPB has “granted access, and by extension, disclosed employee records to individuals associated with DOGE without employee consent to such disclosure.” 

    FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS ELON MUSK’S DOGE FROM ACCESSING TREASURY RECORDS AFTER DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL FILE LAWSUIT 

    Russell Vought, left, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). (Andrew Harnik/Kenny Holston / Getty Images)

    “These employees face irreparable harm to their privacy interests if their employee information is improperly accessed and/or disseminated by individuals associated with DOGE,” that lawsuit adds. “Once an employee’s personnel information is improperly disclosed, the harm to the employee cannot be undone.” 

    The lawsuit also cites a union chapter president as saying that members are “concerned that their personnel information will be used to stop, lower, or otherwise modify their salaries and other benefits; to blackmail, threaten, or intimidate them; to prevent them from obtaining future employment; to deny them goods and services such as loans and childcare; in identity theft and social engineering attempts against them; in advertising and marketing directed at them.”

    The CFPB did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from FOX Business. 

    On its website, the CFPB says it aims to “make consumer financial markets work for consumers, responsible providers, and the economy as a whole.” 

    “We protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and take action against companies that break the law,” it says.

    ELON MUSK ALLEGES $50 BILLION IN FRAUD AT TREASURY AFTER JUDGE BLOCKS DOGE AUDIT 

    Protest against Elon Musk

    Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against Elon Musk outside the U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 4. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)

    Vought, who is the head of the Office of Management and Budget, was named acting director of the agency on Friday. 

    “As Acting Director, I am committed to implementing the President’s policies, consistent with the law, and acting as a faithful steward of the Bureau’s resources,” Vought said in an email to colleagues obtained by RealClearPolitics. 

    However, the lawsuit asks the court to declare that “Defendant Vought’s directive to the CFPB’s employees to stop their supervision and enforcement work is unlawful” and to prevent him from “further attempts to halt the CFPB’s supervision and enforcement work.” 

    The union also notes that Elon Musk wrote “RIP CFPB” on his X account, and that three members of DOGE have “been added to the Bureau’s staff and email directory as ‘senior advisers,’” despite not being CFPB employees. 

    “The same day he assumed the role of Acting Director, on February 7, Mr. Vought instructed CFPB staff to grant the DOGE team access to all non-classified CFPB systems,” it said. 

    Elon Musk and Donald Trump in Florida

    Elon Musk is seen with President Donald Trump. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

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    The second lawsuit asks the court to block “CFPB from granting access and, by extension, disclosing employee records and information to members of the Department of Government Efficiency, except as required by law.” 

  • Baltimore sues Trump for ditching DEI: ‘Attacks anyone who dares to celebrate diversity’

    Baltimore sues Trump for ditching DEI: ‘Attacks anyone who dares to celebrate diversity’

    Baltimore and its Democratic mayor have teamed up with progressive groups to file a lawsuit aimed at stopping President Donald Trump’s executive orders that dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion “programs and preferencing” as the president described in one of his directives.

    Baltimore’s Mayor Brandon Scott – along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, American Association of University Professors, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – filed suit in Maryland federal court this week against Trump and several cabinet heads.

    Scott did not respond to a request for comment but said in a statement that Trump’s order goes beyond attacking DEI but “aims to establish the legal framework to attack anyone or any place who dares to celebrate our diversity.”

    “Baltimore citizens risk losing vital federal funding due to this executive order, putting jobs and livelihoods at stake,” the mayor added. The city council is also listed as a plaintiff.

    LAWMAKERS FROM STATE WITH MOST FEDERAL WORKERS PER CAPITAL BALK AT TRUMP’S BUYOUT BID

    Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) (Getty/iStock)

    Baltimore, the nation’s 30th largest city, is 60% Black, 27% White, 8% Hispanic and 2% Asian, according to the Census Bureau.

    Trump’s order seeks to erase roles within the bureaucracy that include diversity officers as well as “equity”-related endeavors.

    Paulette Granberry Russell, the CEO of the diversity officers’ association, said in a statement that Trump’s orders will undermine the ability for higher education to open “opportunity, innovation and progress for people across the nation.”

    “As the nation’s leading association for diversity officers and professionals in higher education, we will use all tools available, including the legal process, to block these harmful orders,” Granberry Russell said.

    An official for the restaurant industry group said that eateries rely on workers of all ethnic backgrounds and that diversity is what sets the food service sector apart from others.

    “President Trump wishes to see the end of all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs of any kind whatsoever – and we will not stand for it,” its interim president, Teofilo Reyes, said in a statement.

    A spokesperson for the White House disagreed with Baltimore’s assertions.

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    “Minorities in America have recognized the Democrat Party’s empty promises and failed policies. That’s why President Trump earned historic support from Black, Latino, Asian, and Arab Americans by prioritizing secure borders, economic opportunity, and an America First foreign policy,” Trump’s Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital.

    Fields said the left’s “divisive focus” on DEI has undermined decades of progress toward true equality and that Trump and his administration reject such “backward thinking.”

    “[The White House] will pursue an agenda that lifts everyone up with the chance to achieve the American Dream,” Fields said.

    Fox News Digital also reached out to Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., who represents most of Baltimore City in Congress. Mfume did not ultimately offer a response to the inquiry.

    The legal filing opens with a quotation from West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnett – a 1943 Supreme Court case brought by a Jehovah’s Witness family that ruled students cannot be compelled to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

    “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official … can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matter of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” Justice Robert Jackson, an FDR appointee, wrote in his ruling.

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    The filing itself alleges that if “lawful DEI programs are suddenly deemed unlawful by presidential fiat, plaintiffs must either risk prosecution for making a false claim or censor promotion of their values.”

    “Our Constitution does not tolerate that result.”

    It goes on to allege that Trump’s “goal is to punish those who recognize or choose to speak out about this country’s history on issues of enslavement, racial exclusion, health disparities, gender inequality, treatment of individuals with disabilities, and discrimination.”

    The lawsuit was reportedly assisted or organized in part by Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization founded during the first Trump administration that claimed to have identified a number of severe “threats to democracy, social progress and rule of law” that Trump represented after his 2016 win.

    Democracy Forward boasted on its website that it has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times thus far.

    The group’s president, Skye Perryman, said in a statement on the Baltimore lawsuit that the Constitution protects all Americans regardless of occupation and that Trump’s anti-DEI orders “offend these protections and others.”

    “The coalition bringing this suit represents people of diverse professions and backgrounds who are all harmed by these unlawful orders, which have chilled their activities and provision of essential services,” Perryman said.

    Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. 

    He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant. 

    Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

    Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

  • Trans inmate sues Trump admin over ‘two-sexes’ order halting money for gender therapy

    Trans inmate sues Trump admin over ‘two-sexes’ order halting money for gender therapy

    A transgender inmate receiving taxpayer-funded medical treatments has launched the first lawsuit against the Trump administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that puts an end to medical transgender treatments for federal prisoners.

    Trump’s executive order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” prohibits federal funds from being “expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.” The order also declares there are only “two-sexes.”

    The unnamed inmate, who goes by “Maria Moe” in court documents and is represented by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, has been on medical hormones since they were a teenager and has not been housed in a men’s facility since their conviction. 

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    President Donald Trump’s executive order puts an end to medical transgender treatments for federal prisoners. (Getty Images)

    Once Trump signed the executive order, Moe was transferred to a men’s prison facility, and BOP records changed the sex from “female” to “male,” the complaint says.

    The lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, claims Trump’s executive order will lead to transgender women “who are incarcerated in federal prisons” being “unlawfully transferred to men’s facilities and denied medically necessary healthcare.”

    “If Maria Moe is transferred to a men’s facility, she will not be safe,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Sunday, claims. “She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers.”

    “She may be forced to shower in full view of men who are incarcerated. And she will predictably experience worsening gender dysphoria,” the complaint continued.

    Moe is claiming Trump and the BOP are violating the Fifth and Eighth Amendments and claims they are “at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care she needs to treat her gender dysphoria.”

    TRUMP LOOKS TO ENFORCE TRANS INMATE CRACKDOWN AS NEW ACTING FEDERAL PRISONS CHIEF TAPPED

    Donald Trump at inauguration flanked by military honor guards

    President-elect Donald Trump arrives prior to his inauguration at the United States Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Melina Mara – Pool/Getty Images)

    Prior to Trump’s reversal of BOP gender dysphoria policies, the BOP began funding transgender surgical procedures for transgender inmates in December 2022, with Donna Langan – formerly known as Peter Kevin Langan – becoming the first federal prisoner to undergo transition on the taxpayer dollar. Langan was convicted in 1997 for involvement in a series of armed bank robberies across the Midwest during the 1990s. Langan was a leader of the Aryan Republican Army, a White supremacist group that carried out these robberies to fund their activities, according to court documents.

    Langan’s gender transition followed years of advocacy and legal action, including a landmark settlement in 2021, when the BOP agreed to provide gender transition surgery to Cristina Nichole Iglesias, who was convicted in 1994 for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction against British officials.

    TRUMP’S ‘TWO SEXES’ EXECUTIVE ORDER COMES ON HEELS OF SCOTUS ACCEPTING ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO LGBT AGENDA

    Transgender flag with gender symbols

    A New York Times column featured the perspectives of gender destransitioners and gender-affirming care providers who claim that leftwing activists are pushing sex changes on kids too aggressively. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

    In the past year, multiple lawsuits have been filed over the denial of gender transition treatments for incarcerated individuals. Autumn Cordellioné, a transgender woman serving 55 years in Indiana for the murder of their 11-month-old stepdaughter, sued the state for refusing to conduct transgender surgery.

    In April 2024, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice sued Utah’s Department of Corrections, alleging it created unnecessary barriers to gender dysphoria treatment for inmates.

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    In September 2024, Reiyn Keohane, a transgender woman imprisoned in Florida, filed suit against the state’s Department of Corrections. Keohane alleged officials violated the Eighth Amendment for discontinuing hormone therapy and access to female clothing and grooming products, despite Keohane’s prior diagnosis and treatment for gender dysphoria.

    Fox News Digital has reached out to Moe’s attorneys, the White House and BOP.

    Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.