Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Lawyers Defending American Democracy
The early days of the Trump administration have ushered in a series of assertive executive orders that are rapidly reshaping the federal landscape. While new administrations typically bring change, most Americans expect such shifts to respect the rule of law. Project 2025, however, diverges from legal norms, challenging birthright citizenship, dismantling crucial federal agencies like USAID without congressional approval, and attempting to criminalize support for lawful diversity and anti-bias initiatives.
Today’s guest is Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Executive Director of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. She argues that the media has inadequately covered the full scope of Project 2025’s goals. While the boldness of presidential actions has shocked many, these plans were outlined in the Project’s Mandate for Leadership. Trump’s executive orders threaten protections for workers and marginalized communities and undermine checks and balances that ensure government accountability.
Through these executive orders, the administration is unabashedly aligning the government with conservative ideals at the expense of civil rights and environmental protections. Presidential power is being centralized while erasing decades of legal safeguards against discrimination and environmental harm.
Guest – Lauren Stiller Rikleen is author of four books and editor of the 2023 anthology Her Honor—Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges, she is also an active member of the American Bar Association. She serves as vice-chair of the Advisory Commission to the Task Force on American Democracy, vice-chair of the Advisory Council to the DEI Center, and co-chair of the Women’s Caucus.
—-
Trump Executive Orders Dismantle DEI, Critical Race Theory
We are experiencing Donald Trump has launched his second term as President with an avalanche of Executive Orders as part of a calculated Shock and Awe strategy to take over the federal government in defiance of the Constitution, Congress, and maybe even the Supreme Court. One of the most dangerous aspects of that scheme is his plan to dismantle well-established programs and policies that encourage Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, known as DEI, in American society in general and in education in particular; to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory; and to either totally eliminate the Department of Education or at a minimum strip it of its key functions and funding.
The Department of Education was established by an Act Congress in 1979, signed by President Jimmy Carter. The Department of Education says its elementary and secondary programs serve more than 50 million students in about 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. It also provides grants, loans, and work-study assistance to more than 12 million post-secondary students.
According to Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, Trump’s expected Executive Order to abolish the Department of Education, if it becomes a reality, “would steal resources from the most vulnerable students, explode class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher ed more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”
A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to eliminate the Department of Education, though since it would require 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to do so, it is unlikely to pass.
Christopher Rufo, a Senior Fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, writing in its publication, City Journal, spells out rather clearly why the Right is so determined to shut the department down. After pointing out the areas of its work, Rufo says it engages in “ideological production, which includes an array of programs, grants and civil rights initiatives, and third-party NGO’s that create left-wing content to push on local schools.” And he refers to the Department of Education over-all as “a hotbed of left-wing ideologies.”
Trump has yet to issue his Executive Order on this matter, but he’s already said he wants to put the Department of Education out of business, and transfer some of it duties to other departments.
And so today we spend our entire hour looking at the legality of Trump’s plans to target DEI, Critical Race Theory and the Department of Education and, if he is successful, what will be lost and what it is likely to mean for the state of education in America.
Guest – Stephen Rohde is a civil rights activist, author, and constitutional scholar. He practiced civil rights law for almost 50 years. He currently serves as chair of the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (aka ICUJP), which was formed in the wake of 9/11 for the purpose of organizing faith-based communities to call for an end to war and violence. He is also a past President of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and past Chair of Death Penalty Focus, and Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice. Despite that long list of affiliations, today he’s not speaking on behalf of any of those organizations.
——————-