Corporate DEI Consultant Sees Businesses ‘De-Emphasizing’ Diversity Metrics After Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Anti-affirmative action activists with the Asian American Coalition for Education protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on June 29, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Spending for corporate diversity efforts has fallen in the months since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling on college race-based affirmative action policies, according to a new report on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the business sector.

The report, published this month by San Francisco Bay Area-based DEI consultancy firm Paradigm Strategies Inc., identified a decline in corporate DEI budgets and a drop in the number of organizations with a set DEI strategy from 2022 to 2023. Specifically, the authors of the Paradigm Strategies report observed a four-point year-over-year drop in corporate DEI budgets and a nine-point drop in the percentage of organizations that have a DEI strategy.