(Bloomberg Law) — Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s legal group has sued IBM subsidiary Red Hat Inc., claiming the company’s diversity goals led to the discriminatory treatment and termination of a former white male employee.
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In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, America First Legal said Allan Kingsley Wood, a former senior director at Red Hat, suffered racial and gender discrimination as a result of the IBM subsidiary’s diversity, equity and inclusion program The aim was to set hiring targets for women and minorities.
AFL has filed multiple lawsuits over company-related DEI issues. But the conservative group has more frequently filed its complaints directly with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has filed more than 30 requests for the civil rights agency to investigate high-profile companies’ DEI programs for bias, including one that targeted IBM’s diversity work.
The EEOC has not yet publicly responded to the group’s letters, which generally allege that the companies’ DEI efforts discriminate against white and male employees in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Conservative groups have increasingly launched legal attacks on companies’ DEI following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to restrict affirmative action in college admissions. Lawsuits allege that hiring and recruiting decisions made regarding both full-time positions and fellowships at large companies are biased against white workers, but have gained limited traction in federal courts.
Red Hat began implementing new diversity requirements in 2021 and hired a chief executive officer of DEI to lead those efforts, Wednesday’s lawsuit said. AFL claims the company has stated its DEI initiatives impact hiring decisions.
Wood expressed opposition to the company’s DEI policies based on his religious, personal and political views “and continually advocated for hiring based on merit and ability rather than other immutable characteristics,” AFL said in its complaint.
The conservative legal group said Red Hat announced DEI goals that included “quotas” and aimed at “reshaping the workforce demographics to reach 30% women globally and 30% employees of color in the United States by 2028.”
Two weeks later, Wood was told his position would be eliminated along with 21 other employees, the vast majority of whom were also both white and men, the lawsuit says.
The complaint also states that Wood was retaliated against for expressing his beliefs by reducing his approved leave under the Family Medical Leave Act and terminating his employment.
In its letter to the EEOC in December 2023 and a letter to the IBM board, Miller’s group cited video footage of IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier discussing diversity. Krishna says in the video that company leaders’ bonuses can be affected if they fail to meet DEI goals.
Wood is seeking compensation and an injunction against Red Hat’s DEI program.
Red Hat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
To contact the reporter for this story: Riddhi Setty in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebekah Mintzer at [email protected]; Genevieve Douglas at [email protected]
(Updated to add a request to Red Hat for comment on the suit.)
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