New Texas opinion flags popular DEI hiring and training tactics as legal risks
Texas’ attorney general has sharply questioned corporate-style DEI, warning HR that common hiring and training practices may clash with anti-discrimination and even securities laws.
On January 19, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued Opinion No. KP-0505, a lengthy formal opinion on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” in Texas. The opinion sets out his office’s position that many race- and sex-conscious policies in both the public and private sectors raise serious constitutional and statutory concerns.
The opinion devotes considerable space to state and local government programs. Paxton concludes that Texas’s “historically underutilized business” (HUB) framework, which defines eligibility partly by race, ethnicity and sex and ties agencies to utilization “goals” and “good faith efforts,” is presumptively discriminatory and fails strict scrutiny under the U.S. Equal Protection Clause and the Texas Equal Rights Amendment. He reaches similar conclusions about the state’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs and other statutes that give preferences to minority- and women-owned businesses in public contracting and bonding, or that instruct officials to consider race and sex in appointments to boards and commissions.
Those public-sector findings set the stage for the portions of the opinion aimed at private employers. Paxton describes how diversity initiatives have evolved into a “...
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