Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is about to get battered by the Trump administration once again — it’s a metaphor, people — as the Justice Department just announced it’s launching an investigation into his state to find out if it is discriminating in its hiring practices. He’s got to be ripping his hair out by now, having all of these encounters with the Trump administration and being held accountable for his actions.
The investigation started not long after the Minnesota Department of Human Services (MDHS) put out a policy that directs supervisors to “provide a hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate when hiring for a vacancy in a job category with underrepresentation.”
And just to make it clear, this is not a polite suggestion. It’s an order. Failure to obey said order could result in being terminated from your position or facing some other disciplinary measure.
“Minnesotans deserve to have their state government employees hired based on merit, not based on illegal DEI,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in her statement addressing the investigation.
“Federal law has long prohibited employment policies that discriminate based on race or sex,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also stated bout the probe. “The Justice Department refuses to tolerate such conduct, and states invite investigation when they engage in biased hiring practices tied to protected characteristics.”
The MDHS responded to the news by saying that its “hiring justification policy” exists “to ensure the state meets affirmative action responsibilities to comply with state statutes and must increase the diversity of its workforce to reflect and effectively serve its client base.”
“The policy defines ‘underrepresented candidates’ to include ‘females,’ and racial ‘minorities’ who are ‘Black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander,’ ‘American Indian or Alaskan native,’” Dhillon wrote in a letter sent on Thursday to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Department of Human Services’ temporary commissioner Shireen Gandhi.
“Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. When the Attorney General has reasonable cause to believe that a state or local government employer is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination in violation of Title VII, it is the Attorney General’s responsibility to take appropriate action to eliminate that violation, including presenting the matter to the appropriate court for civil proceedings,” Dhillon’s letter further elaborated.
“Specifically, we have reason to believe the Minnesota Department of Human Services is engaging in unlawful action through, among other things, the adoption and forthcoming implementation of its ‘hiring justification’ policy,” the letter stated.
The MDHS delivered remarks to Fox News, saying that it “follows all state and federal hiring laws.”
“Justification of non-affirmative action hires for some vacancies has been required by state law since 1987,” the agency said.
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