Trump Administration Sues The New York Times Over Racial Discrimination
Nancy Butler
May 11, 2026

The Trump administration sued The New York Times, alleging the newspaper discriminated against a white male employee in a hiring decision tied to its diversity initiatives. The complaint, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims the newspaper passed over an internal candidate with “extensive experience in real estate” journalism for a leadership role because he was a white male.

According to the lawsuit, The Times excluded the employee from the final interview process for a real estate editor position in 2025 while advancing candidates who aligned with the company’s diversity goals. “Every candidate who advanced through to the final interview process was not a white male,” the commission said in the filing. “The company ultimately hired an outside candidate for the role — a non-white female with little to no experience in real estate journalism, despite such experience being a requirement for the real estate editor position.”

The complaint alleges the eventual hire was brought into the process outside the standard interview structure and selected despite internal candidates receiving stronger evaluations from interviewers. “As a White male, Charging Party did not match the race and/or sex characteristics NYT sought to increase in its leadership through its diversity actions and aspirations,” the lawsuit states. “The four candidates advanced to the panel interview stage matched the race and/or sex characteristics NYT sought to increase in its leadership. Specifically, the final pool of candidates was composed of a White female, a Black male, an Asian female, and a multiracial female.”

The lawsuit also points to The Times’ public diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as evidence of discriminatory intent. In 2021, the newspaper published a “Call to Action” pledging to increase “racial diversity of leadership” and strengthen efforts to build a more “diverse, equitable and inclusive” workplace. Since 2017, the newspaper has also publicly released demographic breakdowns of its workforce and leadership, tracking the percentage of women and minority employees.

“A decrease in the percentage of White male employees (whether new hires, existing employees, or those in leadership, as appropriate) was a necessary consequence for the NYT to achieve these results,” the lawsuit said. The complaint further cites internal Slack messages from May 2024 involving Deputy Managing Editor Monica Drake and Assistant Managing Editor for Strategy, Operations and Finance Jonathan Galinsky. According to the lawsuit, the editors expressed concern about the number of “people of color” hired into leadership positions. “The May 2024 conversation between Drake and Galinsky, who were senior editors, shows that NYT top leadership discussed ‘targeted efforts’ and were ‘alarmed’ about the trends in the percentage of Whites in leadership reflected in that data, and shows NYT intended to act to increase the numbers of non-White leaders,” the filing states.

The New York Times denied the allegations and accused the EEOC of pursuing a politically motivated case. “Our employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world. We will defend ourselves vigorously,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha told The Daily Wire. “The allegation centers on a single personnel decision for one of over 100 deputy positions across the newsroom, yet the EEOC’s filing makes sweeping claims that ignore the facts to fit a predetermined narrative. Neither race nor gender played a role in this decision — we hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor.”

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas defended the lawsuit, arguing that federal civil rights law does not allow employers to consider race or sex in hiring decisions, even in the name of diversity initiatives. “No one is above the law — including ‘elite’ institutions. There is no such thing as ‘reverse discrimination’; all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles,” Lucas said. “Federal law is clear: making hiring or promotion decisions motivated in whole or in part by race or sex violates federal law. There is no diversity exception to this rule.”

Business as usual.

I find "Southern District of New York" to be the most significant phrase in this action.