Washington, D.C. – Today, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) joined Mountain States Legal Foundation’s investigation into the United States Secret Service’s reliance on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies for hiring, retention, and promotion. This brings a powerful women’s group into the project of protecting merit in high-stakes environments like the Secret Service.
Importantly, IWF seeks information from current and former agents and agency applicants who believe that they were wrongfully discriminated against based on their sex. Individuals should submit their stories here.
IWF joins this fight to protect the dignity and respect that women have earned in male-dominated workplaces. The Secret Service employs many talented and highly capable women. But on July 13, 2024, former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated in an unfathomable security failure. Devastatingly for all women in law enforcement, too many questioned whether this was the fault of women, following photographs from the day. This question arose because Secret Service leadership broadcasts that sex plays a key role in hiring and promotions, including setting an arbitrary goal of 30% of agents being female by 2030.
IWF applauds efforts to seek qualified women, and to provide benefits that women need. But sex-discriminatory employment decisions are illegal and actually harm women, by establishing a workplace-wide, and sometimes society-wide, assumption that women can’t compete without a handout. IWF has issued policy papers and legal briefs challenging female quotas on corporate boards, and will continue to fight for females succeeding in the workplace without the soft bigotry of low expectations.
“Protecting candidates for President of the United States is imperative to the functioning of our Republic, and the catastrophic results of an assassination simply can’t be understated. Yet it appears that the Secret Service is prioritizing its DEI agenda over the need to hire the best person for the job, regardless of sex. If it takes a lawsuit to change that, so be it,” said Will Trachman, general counsel of Mountain States Legal Foundation.
“The Biden-Harris administration openly treats women as tokens to meet arbitrary quotas—when it can’t define women at all,” said May Mailman, director of Independent Women’s Law Center. “Not only do biased hiring practices in high-stakes roles threaten our national security, but they create doubts over female competence, threatening women’s ability to be viewed and treated as equal.”
Mountain States Legal Foundation recently announced that it planned to file a lawsuit against the Secret Service for discriminatory and dangerous civil rights violations. IWF joins this fight because our nation’s leaders deserve the best, and because all women suffer when quotas outweigh qualifications.
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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities
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Mountain States Legal Foundation is a non-profit law firm, dedicated to restoring those rights enshrined in the Constitution, at zero legal fees to our clients. MSLF is focused on protecting property rights and economic liberty, defending the right to keep and bear arms, championing free speech and association, and upholding the principle of equal protection.