A federal judge has granted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s motion to drop its subpoena against Nike that alleged that the sportswear maker discriminated against its own white employees through DEI initiatives.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Judge Cristian Stevens presided over the motion and said in a briefing on Thursday that Nike has agreed to hand over employee diversity data, effectively ending the investigation.
The EEOC later said through a spokesperson that it was “pleased the company complied without a court order after the filing of our subpoena enforcement action.”
Nike declined to provide a statement regarding the motion or if it gave the EEOC all of the employee it sought or when the information was turned over.
But the end of suit comes more than seven months after EEOC chair Andrea Lucas launched a probe in February aimed at Nike, alleging that the company committed “unlawful employment practices” that impacted — and could have affected — past, current and future white workers.
At the time Nike said through a spokesperson that it considered the claims as a “surprising and unusual escalation.”
“We are committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” the spokesperson also said. “We believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”
Based on the EEOC filing in February, the probe did not appear to originate from any Nike employees. Instead, Lucas pushed the claim, with the allegation that the company “discriminated against white workers, including as a result of Nike’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related 2025 Targets and other DEI-related objectives.”
Lucas pointed out that data Nike shared through its own news channels showed that programs promoted to fuel diversity indicated that the brand’s minority leadership saw progress as it pushed to have racial and ethnic minorities make up around 35 percent of its corporate ranks by 2025.
Nike has previously been a target of Lucas since she filed a discrimination charge against the company on 2024 when she was an EEOC commissioner but failed to gain traction or extract internal data, with Lucas noting that the agency at the time was mostly Democratic.
Under the Trump administration the EEOC’s leadership ranks are largely Republican and Lucas has turned her a notable portion of her efforts toward addressing discrimination against white people.
In a now now-viral video from a social media post in December, Lucas appealed to white men to file discrimination claims with the EEOC.
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex?, Lucas said in the video that has amassed more than six million views on X, formally Twitter. “You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the EEOC as soon as possible. Time limits are typically strict for filing a claim.”
