President Donald Trump’s executive order repealing President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 executive order on nondiscrimination and federal contracts means the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated facilities such as bathrooms and drinking fountains.
As NPR points out, in the memo from William Clark, director of the Office of Government-wide Acquisition Policy under the U.S. General Services Administration, new solicitations or contracts should not include a list of provisions and clauses, including the prohibition of segregated facilities.
According to the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) — a document agencies use to write contracts for anyone providing goods or services to the federal government, Clause 52.222-21 is known as the “Prohibition of Segregated Facilities.”According to the clause, segregated facilities include waiting rooms, work areas, restrooms and washrooms, restaurants, time clocks, locker rooms, parking lots, drinking fountains, entertainment areas, and other facilities that are segregated by explicit directive or, in fact, segregated based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin because of written or oral policies or employee custom.
The Segregated Facilities Directive Effective Immediately
Before Trump’s executive orders, government contractors agreed not to maintain or provide segregated facilities for their employees at any of their establishments and not to permit their employees to perform their services at any location under their control where segregated facilities are maintained.
That has changed under the Trump administration and his executive orders to get rid of DEI initiatives. According to NPR, several federal agencies, such as the departments of Defense, Commerce, and Homeland Security, have notified staffers overseeing these federal contracts to implement these changes immediately.
It is important to note that businesses still need to follow federal and state laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans segregated facilities, regardless of whether the business has a government contract.
Still, legal experts say the changes to contracts with the federal government are significant.
“These provisions that required federal contractors to adhere to and comply with federal civil rights laws and to maintain
integrated rather than segregated workplaces were all part of the federal government’s efforts to facilitate the settlement that led to integration in the 1950s and 1960s” Melissa Murray, a constitutional law professor at New York University, told NPR.RELATED CONTENT: Segregation Still Haunts American Education System