Biden’s New Official Overseeing Workplace Discrimination Has A Long History Of Supporting Discrimination
Will Kessler on July 16, 2023
A new Biden-nominated commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has a track record of supporting left-wing and discriminatory causes.
Kalpana Kotagal, lawyer and newly confirmed EEOC commissioner, is the creator of the now widely used “inclusion rider” and has played a leading role in many large discrimination lawsuits as a partner at the left-wing activist firm Cohen Milstein. The now Democrat-controlled EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws involving discrimination in the workplace based on a number of protected identities, giving the Biden administration the opportunity to insert diversity, equity and inclusion policies into the workplace.
The EEOC describes its purpose as investigating complaints of workplace discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age (40 or older), or genetic information,” according to the EEOC website. The commission sues those who violate discrimination laws when the employer does not comply.
The Senate voted on Thursday 49-47 along party lines to confirm the Biden-nominated Kotagal, which gives Democrats a majority on the five-member panel, giving it the power to enforce left-wing workplace policies, according to Reuters.
Kotagal is the co-creator of the “inclusion rider,” which gained notoriety during the 2018 Oscars when actress Frances McDormand concluded her speech by mentioning the contract. An “inclusion rider” is an addendum in an actor or content creator’s contract that requires the larger project to follow diversity hiring practices, prioritizing certain minority groups.
“Kotagal’s confirmation gives Democrats a majority on the commission. Because under federal law the commissioners can file charges of discrimination and investigate and file or allow private lawsuits, they can affect the day-to-day practices in many businesses and organizations, affecting millions of Americans,” said Jack Park, lawyer and general counsel at the American Constitutional Rights Union, to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
One case in which Kotagal played a prominent role involved having insurance company Aetna expand coverage to include breast augmentations as a part of transgender sex-change surgeries, with the firm placing it under her “recent successes” on the law firm’s website.
Anita Hill, who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991, co-wrote a 2017 op-ed with Kotagal in Variety that critiqued the number of women and minorities in the White House and Hollywood.
“It is a difficult time to be a woman in this country,” Hill and Kotagal said in the op-ed. “We just elected as president a man whose actions range from shocking disregard for women to brazen attacks on them. The number of women in Donald Trump’s cabinet is appallingly anemic. His repeated and nasty attacks on everyone from Alicia Machado to Elizabeth Warren, along with his and Congress’ regressive agenda, offer a preview of the coming threats to gender pay equity, reproductive rights, and protections from domestic violence and sexual assault, to name just a few.”
Dan Morenoff, lawyer and executive director at the American Civil Rights Project, told the DCNF he believes the most dangerous part of Kotagal’s confirmation is not her personal power but instead the resulting shift in the entire commission due to the new Democratic majority.
“To the extent her fellow Democratic appointees agree to pursue her apparent agenda, her confirmation threatens a sea-change in the Commission’s understanding and application of American non-discrimination laws,” Morenoff said about Kotagal. “Specifically, employers should beware that the new majority may well advance positions on Title VII’s meaning: (a) for race-balancing employment decisions, at odds with the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent SFFA decision; and (b) for the provision of single-sex facilities for employees.”
The EEOC and Kotagal did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].