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New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Dodgers DEI efforts subject of federal civil rights complaint filed by conservative legal group
A conservative legal group co-founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has filed a federal civil rights complaint accusing the Los Angeles Dodgers of 'apparently engaging in unlawful discrimination under the guise of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion.'' The complaint was filed Monday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by America First Legal, less than two weeks after the Dodgers said they denied federal immigration authorities access to Dodger Stadium parking lots. Advertisement The Dodgers declined to comment Wednesday about the complaint, which also named their ownership group, Guggenheim Partners. The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Miller is seen as the architect of Trump's immigration policy, which has involved the detaining and deporting of tens of thousands of immigrants and attempting to end birthright citizenship. While the civil rights complaint focuses on diversity efforts, America First Legal mentioned the situation between the Dodgers and federal immigration officials in its news release about the complaint. Los Angeles is one of several cities affected by the Trump administration's militarized immigration raids and protests over immigration policy. The Dodgers have faced criticism from some fans who have called on the team to do more to support immigrants in the wake of the crackdown. On June 19, the Dodgers said federal authorities showed up at Dodger Stadium's Gate A and requested access, which was denied. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement at the time that the vehicles were there 'unrelated to any operation or enforcement' and that the activity 'had nothing to do with the Dodgers.' The next day, the team committed $1 million toward assistance for families affected by the immigration raids in the city. The Dodgers are the latest organization AFL has taken on for their diversity efforts, joining a group that includes universities and companies like IBM and Johnson & Johnson. The legal group has pursued an agenda aligned with the Trump Administration when it comes to seeking to end diversity efforts; in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting diversity efforts in the federal government. Opponents say the Trump administration's actions target crucial programs such as medical research and care for women or LGBTQ people. Advertisement AFL singled out a page of the Dodgers' website that includes a mission 'to create a culture where diverse voices and experiences are valued.' The site outlines efforts to recruit women and people of color, partner with community groups to support racial and social justice and promote heritage events for staff and fans. The complaint also names the Dodgers' professional groups for employees, such as the Black Action Network and Women's Opportunity Network. 'The DEI mission statement indicates that the Dodgers are incorporating DEI into its workplace in quantifiable ways with identifiable goals to achieve 'success,' which appears to entail engaging in unlawful discriminatory hiring, training, and recruitment,' AFL stated in its complaint. Conservatives have targeted diversity and equity efforts, arguing that they amount to discrimination, while proponents of such programs say that DEI seeks to lessen discrimination by supporting historically disadvantaged groups. Jared Rivera, chief of staff of Pico California, one of the organizing groups that called on the Dodgers to do more for immigrants, said the complaint amounts to retaliation. 'Stephen Miller's group is dressing up vengeance as legal action,' Rivera said. 'Retaliating against the Dodgers for their compassion shows Miller is threatened when the team and its fans stand up for what is moral and right.' The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya contributed to this report.
New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
10 Ways of Making Sense of Zohran Mamdani's Win
Four years ago, when Eric Adams was elected mayor, New Yorkers were told that it marked the end of a progressive wave that had shaped national Democratic politics at least since the shock election of Donald Trump in 2016. Just five months ago, as Democrats reckoned with the meaning of a second loss to Trump, the refrain was similar: The party had been pulled too far left by its activist flank, which it needed to not just discipline but also perhaps disavow. At the time, Zohran Mamdani was registering just 1 percent support. Now he has won a decisive primary victory by bringing a remarkably novel electorate to the polls. And a lesson of his shock victory is one we probably should have learned several times over the past decade: Politics are fluid, even quicksilver, and the just-so stories we tell ourselves about what is possible and what is not are almost always simplistic and in many cases just plain wrong. New York is only one city, exceptional in many ways, and last week's was just one election — a primary at that, featuring a front-runner burdened by laziness and a toxic past. And there are obvious reasons to think that the Mamdani playbook now being debated so furiously both by its admirers and by its detractors would not work in other parts of the country — at least, not in all of them. But Mamdani's triumph is nevertheless, as I wrote a few weeks ago in anticipation, an extremely big deal, elevating an avowed leftist closer to a more consequential executive office than any has held in generations. And though Mamdani's ascension comes with meaningful risks, it also throws open a whole new horizon of political possibility. Mamdani's supporters are exhilarated by the fresh air. But the oxygen spent on him by his haters over the past week shows that they, too, think Mamdani's win is a major national event. Last month, I asked what stories we might tell about a Mamdani victory — for the left, for the city and indeed for the whole country. But election night delivered enough of an earthquake that a number of new and important story lines have emerged since — too many, I think, to organize in any way but as a grab bag of observations. Here are 10. 1. The American left has a new face, and New York City is now an extremely high-stakes progressive experiment. These days, with American politics more and more nationalized, every candidate everywhere is, to some extent, required to participate in national debates and be subjected to national scrutiny (on cable news and social media as well as offline). Perhaps in another era or another city an election like this could be cauterized from the national landscape, allowing an experiment in one city to play out on its own terms. Not now. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
With Trump's Policy Bill Teetering, Johnson Is in a Familiar Pickle
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday found himself in a familiar pickle: teetering on the edge of failure as he worked to win over the regular holdouts in his party — and ultimately relying on President Trump himself to push legislation over the finish line to deliver his agenda. In the past, this formula has worked for Mr. Johnson. He has used it to clear multiple steep hurdles despite his inexperience and the lack of trust he inspires in some rank-and-file Republicans who privately believe he is in over his head. In Mr. Johnson's deeply divided Republican Conference, the margins are always too slim, the bill is always teetering on the brink of death, there is always more trouble looming for the next step of the process and mini-rebellions are always flaring up. Quashing them often involves sessions at the White House, where Mr. Trump plays the magnanimous host, sometimes offering photographs in the Oval Office or signing merch, to seal the deal. That was the case on Wednesday, as Mr. Johnson worked to put down multiple revolts in his party and bring the G.O.P.'s marquee legislation slashing taxes and social safety net programs to the floor for a final vote. 'This whole process has relied on a sense of inevitability that this will get done, no matter how steep the hill,' said Brendan Buck, a former top adviser to two Republican House speakers, John A. Boehner and Paul D. Ryan. 'And this will get done, someway, somehow. And when it does, Mike Johnson will deserve all the credit in the world for keeping an even keel, and Donald Trump will deserve all the credit for being the muscle standing over the speaker's shoulder.' Mr. Trump has been the muscle, but also the flatterer. That method has yielded favorable results. 'It's cool that the president knows my first name, I dig that,' Representative Tim Burchett, a hard-line Republican from Tennessee, said in March, just before he caved and voted for Mr. Trump's budget plan that he had originally opposed. On Wednesday, Mr. Burchett, one of many ultraconservatives raising concerns about giving final approval to the domestic policy bill, seemed giddy in a video he posted on social media after leaving yet another meeting with Mr. Trump. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
