TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Sep 22, 2025

A Tennessee state legislative committee voted last week to remove references to women, minorities, people with disabilities and veterans from the state's equal employment opportunity plan. Under the proposal, Tennessee will no longer formally track or publicly report on the demographics of individuals interviewed, hired or promoted to jobs in the executive branch of state government as of Oct. 7. According to Tennessee Lookout, the Joint Government Operations Committee also lifted a requirement for state agencies to specifically recruit, hire and promote underrepresented women and minorities. The rule change was necessary to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order ending affirmative action in government employment and recent state laws according to a deputy general counsel for the state’s Department of Human Resources. According to the paper, the state will continue to track employment of veterans and those with disabilities to comply with separate federal laws.