The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Thursday filed a subpoena enforcement action against Northwestern Mutual after the company refused to produce information about its diversity policies.
The measure marks the first DEI-related enforcement action that the EEOC has taken in federal court under the Trump administration. It comes after an employee at Northwestern Mutual, Mark McNulty, alleged that he had been denied a promotion based on his race and gender, prompting the agency to seek information about Northwestern Mutual’s hiring practices.
The company rejected the vast majority of the EEOC’s document requests and refused to make its vice president of diversity and inclusion, Amy Hanneman, available for an interview. It continued stonewalling even after the agency issued a formal subpoena, which Thursday’s filing asks a federal court to enforce.
“Title VII charges the EEOC with confronting unlawful employment practices,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. “When we see clear indications that an employer’s DEI program may violate federal prohibitions against discrimination, we will use the full extent of our authority—including subpoena enforcement—to obtain the information needed to investigate and take appropriate action.”
The enforcement action, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, is the latest example of the EEOC’s determination to stamp out unlawful DEI policies. Under Lucas’s tenure, the agency has pressured law firms to ditch race-based fellowships, investigated Harvard University for hiring discrimination, and obtained a $21 million settlement for Jewish employees at Columbia University.
Lucas has said that her aggressive approach is necessary to create a level playing field. In an interview with Washington Free Beacon earlier this year, she argued that civil rights law would “always trend left” if conservatives refused to wield the tools of the anti-discrimination bureaucracy.
McNulty alleged that Northwestern Mutual had discriminated against him and other white men “when it enhanced its existing Diversity Equity and Inclusion policy by focusing on providing additional support and opportunities for women and people of color,” according to the EEOC’s filing on Thursday. He also claimed that he was subject to retaliation for complaining about these initiatives.
