Trump EEOC Moves to End Job Data Amid Civil Rights Battles
The Trump administration has signaled it will eliminate a landmark federal requirement that companies report workforce demographic data by race and sex, a move critics describe as one of the most consequential civil rights reversals in decades — even as separate developments on voting rights, immigration enforcement, and national security underscore deepening political divisions across the United States.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) notified the White House on May 14 that it plans to rescind the EEO-1 reporting requirement, which has been in place since the 1960s under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The rule requires companies with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees to submit annual breakdowns of their workforces by race, ethnicity, and sex. The proposal has been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
A ‘Civil Rights Reversal’ in the Making
Republican EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has emerged as a driving force behind the rollback, which the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint identified as a long-standing conservative priority. The agency under Lucas has investigated Nike’s diversity policies for allegedly discriminating against White employees and sued a Coca-Cola distributor for excluding male employees from a women’s retreat.
“Without this data, the EEOC loses its most basic tool needed to do its job,” said Lily Zheng, a fairness and inclusion strategist. Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, who directs the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, warned that “in the absence of these data, employers and the EEOC will be flying blindly.”
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies called the potential loss of data “one of the most consequential civil-rights reversals of this era,” arguing that “data does not predetermine outcomes. It does not guarantee discrimination claims succeed. It just allows society to see. And increasingly, that visibility itself appears to be what is under attack.”
Proponents of the change argue it moves toward race-neutral policy. Jonathan Berry, a Trump administration veteran now serving as solicitor for the Department of Labor, said the goal is “to move toward colorblindness and to recognize that we need to have laws and policies that treat people like full human beings not reducible to categories, especially when it comes to race.”
Justice Jackson Warns on Supreme Court Politicization
The EEOC announcement came against a backdrop of intensifying debate over the role of race in American law and politics. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, speaking at the American Law Institute in Washington on May 18, publicly addressed the Supreme Court’s controversial April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which limited protections for minority voters under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Jackson expressed concern about the conservative majority’s rare decision to immediately certify the ruling over the objection of Black Louisiana voters who were considering a rehearing petition — bypassing the standard 32-day waiting period. The practical effect has been the elimination of at least one majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana.
“It can so easily be perceived that the court is doing something political,” Jackson said. “In my view, we have to be really, really careful in this environment when we’re dealing with issues that have a political overlay.”
Her dissent drew a heated response from Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas, who accused her of leveling “baseless and insulting” claims of partisanship.
NAACP Launches ‘Out of Bounds’ Campaign Targeting College Sports
The Supreme Court’s voting rights ruling has directly triggered the NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign, launched May 19, which calls on Black athletes, recruits, fans, and alumni to withhold athletic and financial support from public universities in eight southern states: Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia.
The campaign targets flagship programs including the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Louisiana State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and others — institutions where athletic departments generate more than $100 million in annual revenue, much of it powered by Black football and basketball talent.
“The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.
Tylik McMillan, director of the NAACP Youth & College Division, added: “This generation of Black athletes understands something that those who came before them were never afforded the chance to say so plainly: your talent is yours, and so is your community’s political power.”
F-16s Intercept Plane Over Washington
Amid these political battles, security officials scrambled F-16 fighter jets on May 20 after a civilian aircraft entered restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. The plane entered the D.C. Metropolitan Area Special Flight Rules Area around 11:15 a.m., prompting NORAD to dispatch aircraft that intercepted the plane and escorted it from the area without further incident.
The restricted zone spans approximately 33 miles around the capital, and interceptions of civilian aircraft are not uncommon — particularly when the president is traveling.
Army Soldier Fears Wife’s Deportation Despite Release
In a separate development highlighting tensions in immigration enforcement, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier and three-time Afghanistan veteran with 27 years of service, told CBS News he still fears his wife could be deported at any moment despite her release from ICE detention.
Deisy Rivera Ortega, a native of El Salvador, was detained in mid-April during an immigration appointment in El Paso. After a month in detention, she was released last week following CBS News reporting and a personal call from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. However, she now wears an ankle monitor, faces regular check-ins, and remains under a deportation order that could send her to Mexico — a country where she has no relatives or ties.
“My wife can be deported at any moment,” Serrano said. He is now seeking to delay his planned retirement to pay legal fees and prepare for the possibility of deportation.
Broader Implications
These five stories, while distinct, reflect interconnected themes shaping American politics in May 2026: a coordinated rollback of civil rights enforcement mechanisms, the Supreme Court’s entanglement in partisan redistricting battles, the mobilization of economic leverage by advocacy groups, the persistent tension between immigration enforcement and military family protections, and the ever-present security concerns surrounding the nation’s capital.
As the midterm elections approach, the redistricting battles triggered by the Louisiana v. Callais decision are expected to intensify across southern states, with the NAACP’s campaign testing whether athletic and economic pressure can translate into political change. Meanwhile, the fate of the EEO-1 reporting requirement now rests with the regulatory review process — a process that will determine whether the federal government continues to measure workplace inequality or, as critics warn, chooses to look away.