Kentucky Attorney General Cameron Denounces Racial Hiring Quotas

Being Pushed by Nation’s Largest Law Firms

FRANKFORT, Ky. (August 29, 2023) – Attorney General Daniel Cameron is putting America’s largest 100 law firms on notice regarding their race-based discrimination in the workplace. General Cameron and a coalition of attorneys general issued a letter reminding the law firms of their duty to refrain from discriminating on the basis of race in both their employment and contracting practices.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions struck down racial preferences in college admissions and held that “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Sadly, it has long been the case that race-based policies and programs are commonplace among some of today’s major law firms. And despite the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, several law firms have opted to continue these practices.

These offensive practices range from explicit racial quotas and preferences in hiring and promoting to race-based contracting benchmarks, such as selecting suppliers and providing preferential treatment to customers based on their race.

“Suppressing equal opportunity in the name of identity politics is a slap in the face to the promise of the American Dream for all,” said General Cameron. “There is no excuse for this racially discriminatory approach. Leaders of our largest law firms should be watchdogs against these crooked practices rather than contributing to race-based barriers themselves.”

The coalition emphasizes that racial discrimination under the smokescreen of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is still discrimination that violates both state and federal law. The attorneys general also note that mandatory DEI initiatives and related trainings may create a hostile workplace, a well-recognized form of employment discrimination under Title VII.

General Cameron continues to fight against woke ideology. Last month, he demanded that corporate America cease similar race-based hiring practices. Earlier this year, he warned the nation’s largest asset managers not to push ESG-related investments and called out Target’s "LGBT Pride: Kids" campaign as part of a comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children.

View the letter here.