Overview
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted in late June to rescind its 1979 interpretive guidance and the related Compliance Manual section that guided voluntary affirmative action under Title VII.
- EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said the documents were inconsistent with the text of Title VII and with Supreme Court decisions that have emerged since 1979.
- The 1979 guidance had given employers a clear framework for when narrowly tailored race‑ or sex‑conscious steps could be used to address past discrimination or underrepresentation.
- Legal advisers tell employers to audit hiring, promotion, pay and DEI programs now because the withdrawal removes the agency roadmap many relied on and raises the chance of agency probes or private suits.
- The change does not alter Title VII or Supreme Court rulings, but it fits a wider federal and state trend limiting race‑ or sex‑conscious policies and is likely to produce uneven enforcement and new litigation as courts and regulators set fresh boundaries.