A federal judge in Missouri has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Republican-led state accusing Starbucks of using its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments to unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation.
In a ruling, U.S. District Judge John Ross said the state had failed to show that Starbucks discriminated against “even a single Missouri resident” who worked for the company or applied for a job there.
The lawsuit, filed by Missouri’s attorney general’s office, alleged that Starbucks had linked executive pay to the achievement of racial and gender-based hiring targets, and had provided preferential training and advancement opportunities to certain groups. It also accused the company of using quotas to ensure racial and ethnic diversity on its board of directors.
The case was originally brought by former Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey, before he joined the Trump administration as co-deputy director of the FBI. The current attorney general’s office, now led by Catherine Hanaway, said it would continue to pursue cases against companies whose hiring practices it believes violate Missouri law.
The lawsuit challenged policies introduced by Starbucks in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, which prompted widespread protests and led many companies to reassess their employment and diversity practices.
The ruling comes amid a broader political push by President Donald Trump to roll back DEI initiatives across the federal government, schools and the private sector. Several major US companies, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon and Target, have publicly scaled back diversity programmes in recent years.
Starbucks employs more than 200,000 people in the United States and around 360,000 globally. In a separate case in 2023, a federal judge in Washington state dismissed a shareholder lawsuit challenging the company’s diversity policies, finding that the issues raised were matters of public policy better left to lawmakers and corporate decision-makers.
Missouri’s lawsuit had sought to force Starbucks to end the alleged discriminatory practices, reinstate affected employees and pay unspecified damages.
