The companies that adopted DEI to avoid being racist, are now being sued for their DEI policies. This episode follows the legal unraveling of a framework that confused a moral goal with a legal shortcut — from the Novant Health executive fired to hit a diversity quota, to the federal government suing the New York Times and Nike for race discrimination in the name of inclusion. The Supreme Court’s unanimous Ames ruling changed the playing field for every employer in America, and companies like Delta that publicly doubled down on DEI are now sitting in the crosshairs. The lesson isn’t that the goal was wrong — it’s that the shortcut was always going to end here.