Florida Anti-DEI Law Requires Contractors to Certify Compliance

A new law in Florida will prevent local governments from funding or promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and require that contractors and grant recipients certify that public funds will not be used for prohibited DEI endeavors.

The law bars local governments from funding DEI offices or employing DEI officers. Counties and municipalities may not provide or authorize “funds to be used by employees, contractors, volunteers, vendors, or agents to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.” However, the law allows local governments to recognize official state and federal holidays and support nonprofits that provide single-sex programs for homeless individuals, at-risk youth, and victims of domestic violence.

In addition to the provisions affecting public employers, the law has important implications for private employers that do business with municipalities in Florida. Prior to being awarded a municipal contract or grant, the law requires potential recipients to certify that they do not and will not “use county or municipal funds” to require “employees, contractors, volunteers, vendors, or agents to ascribe to, study, or be instructed using materials relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Toolkit: SHRM’s BEAM Toolkit for I&D

The law exempts from the definition of DEI “materials designed to inform a person about the prohibition against discrimination based on protected status under state or federal law.” At a minimum, this would include the prohibition against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the prohibition against discrimination based on the additional characteristics under the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 (FCRA), which also extends to pregnancy, age, disability, and marital status. This exemption could, however, lead to disagreement over whether training merely “informs” employees of the prohibitions against discrimination or impermissibly addresses the topics prohibited by the law, which often intersect with antidiscrimination training.

The law allows residents to sue local governments for violations and indicates that a violation could constitute “misfeasance or malfeasance in office,” which could affect the types of information that local governments seek from prospective contractors and the criteria for awarding contracts and grants, particularly in counties where similarly motivated challenges have been frequent.

The enactment of the bill follows a similar move in January 2026, when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier released an opinion indicating that affirmative action in state employment, race-based contracting preferences, and minority representation quotas are unconstitutional.

The action in Florida aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate what it considers “illegal DEI” among government contractors, higher education institutions, and the private sector.

Next Steps

Public employers and employers that may be awarded contracts or grants may wish to conduct privileged, proactive audits to evaluate their existing training materials and other practices prior to the effective date of the new law in order to be prepared to certify compliance with the new law.

Simone R.D. Francis is an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Gretchen M. Lehman is an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Tampa, Fla. © 2026 Ogletree Deakins. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.