Damon Hewitt: The Legal Expert

ollowing the Trump administration’s volley of executive orders ending federal funding commitments to nonprofits focused on racial equity, LGBTQ rights, and climate-change protections, nonprofits like the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law saw the action was going to be in the courts.

In April, the Lawyers’ Committee scored a significant legal victory against the administration’s bid to extinguish diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in a case it argued for the nonprofit Chicago Women in Trades, which charged that a Trump provision in which nonprofits certify they are not promoting DEI infringed on their free-speech rights.

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Although the win is temporary, the decision underscores the Lawyers’ Committee’s central argument: “It is not illegal to invest in Black people,” says Damon Hewitt, the nonprofit’s president.

Since January, the Lawyers’ Committee — which was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers to protect civil-rights law — has counseled more than 160 nonprofits struggling with their approaches to diversity. The meetings are designed to assure nonprofit leaders that attempts to stop most DEI programs are not grounded in law.

The Lawyers’ Committee isn’t motivated by what Hewitt calls “cookie cutter” cases. Rather, the criteria for taking a case are that a successful decision would lead to the material improvement in the lives of Black people and people of color and that it would set a meaningful precedent for future cases.

Since the start of the new administration, Hewitt says civil-rights nonprofits, including the National Urban League, MALDEF, and others, have done a good job coordinating where to file cases so they don’t step on each other’s toes.

Hewitt believes a robust popular movement and victories in the court of public opinion are important. But that kind of strategy can only work alongside successful litigation and wins in actual courts.

Says Hewitt: “It’s really important that people understand the value of a good lawyer.”