Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.
Missouri AG’s ‘Performance’ DEI Claims| Curtailing Immigration Protections
Khorri Atkinson: Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s lawsuit alleging that Starbucks Corp.’s diversity practices result in higher prices and longer wait times for services reflects an ideological shift in how DEI initiatives are being viewed and tested in court.
Bailey’s Feb. 11 suit claims the coffee industry giant’s policies and goals to boost racial minorities in retail and corporate positions amount to discriminatory “quotas” in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
Starbucks’ failure to focus on merit created a workforce that’s “more female and less white,” and led workers to make more “mistakes” than usual, it alleged. Consumers in Missouri have 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,” it said.
The AG’s claims mirror those of President Donald Trump and critics who’ve blamed DEI for a wide range of societal issues, oftentimes without any concrete evidence, legal observers said.
This “category of claims I would call performance theater,” said Aaron Goldstein, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney. “The claim that people are suffering through longer lines at Starbucks as a result of DEI is pure performance theater.”
“There’s just no legal basis to say Starbucks has an...
On July 7, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon imposed a judgment of $949 million against CVS Health and its subsidiary, OmniCare Inc., after a jury found the defendants liable under the... To view...