UPDATED: filed a counterclaim to a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that the Commission’s litigation was a retaliatory effort because of the newspaper’s reporting on the Trump administration.
In a filing in federal court in Manhattan, the Times’ legal team wrote, “The Commission filed this action only eight days after The Times published an article reporting that the EEOC is under pressure to use its scarce resources to pursue flimsy (at best) claims of alleged discrimination that ‘fit the Trump administration’s priorities,’ and a mere two days after The Times reported that it was being investigated by the EEOC.”
Read The New York Times’ counterclaim to a Trump administration lawsuit.
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In May, the EEOC filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against the Times, alleging that it violated federal law when it passed up a white male employee for a promotion because of his race or sex.
But in its filing, the Times’ legal team wrote that the person chosen for the role as deputy real estate editor was more qualified than the person who was passed up for the job, Bryant Roussau. The Times’ team wrote that she had extensive experience with service journalism and “articulated a compelling vision for the future of The Times’s real estate coverage that aligned with the Real Estate desk’s goals to focus on service and visually-driven journalism.” The Times also noted that other candidates of color of both sexes had more real estate experience than Rousseau yet were not advanced in the hiring process.
“Despite conducting an eight-month investigation, collecting more than a thousand pages of documents, and interviewing no fewer than nine witnesses, the Commission was unable to identify any evidence that The Times considered the selected candidate’s race or sex in filling the position,” the Times stated in its filing.
The Trump administration has done after private companies — including Disney — over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, claiming that they are themselves discriminatory. But in its lawsuit, the Times not only defends its policies but notes that it was grounded in initiatives of the EEOC until Trump came back to office.
The Times contended that the EEOC rested its claim “almost entirely” on a 2021 Call to Action report and subsequent diversity and inclusion reports. The leadership goals laid out in the report, the Times’ legal team stated, “were aspirational in nature and were not established targets or quotas; they were a projection of the expected impact of various legitimate, nondiscriminatory efforts to improve The Times’s culture and strengthen its people practices and were consistent with longstanding EEOC guidance in place at the time.” The real estate deputy editor position was not impacted as it was not a “leadership” position, the Times filing stated.
The counterclaim also identifies numerous instances in which Trump has attacked the Times, noting that he has, among other things, called it “treasonous.”
“The Commission’s retaliatory, bad faith use of its authority to target The Times violates the First and Fifth Amendments and the Administrative Procedure Act (‘APA’) and poses a uniquely insidious threat to a free and independent press, and to our democracy,” according to the filing.
The counterclaim alleges violation of the First Amendment, due process and the Administrative Procedure Act. It seeks dismissal of the EEOC claim and a declaration that the lawsuit was a violation of the First and Fifth Amendment, as well as the APA. It also seeks costs and attorney’s fees.
An EEOC spokesperson said, “The agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
