A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked the Trump Administration from firing 19 intelligence officers assigned to DEI jobs.
The Virginia-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court judge’s injunction requiring the intelligence agencies to provide the officials with an opportunity to be reassigned.
A group of anonymous intelligence officers, who had been temporarily reassigned to roles implementing controversial Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs, previously filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, names ODNI, the CIA, and leadership — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—as defendants.
The plaintiffs, identified as “John Does 1-6” and “Jane Does 1-5,” claim they were unfairly targeted simply for their prior assignments to DEIA programs.
Reuters reported:
A divided federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration could not proceed with firing 19 intelligence officers who had been assigned to positions related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives.
A 2-1 panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that a lower-court judge issued last year requiring the CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide them an opportunity to seek reassignment to new positions and appeal their terminations internally.
U.S. Circuit Judge Nicole Berner, writing for the majority, said that among the promises of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment “is the requirement that no person be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
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