The latest study from the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Northwest D.C., titled Project 2025’s Distortion of Civil Rights Law Threatens Americans with Legalized Discrimination, has raised concerns about Project 2025, a comprehensive 900-plus page playbook created by far-right organizations that support former President Donald Trump and aims to undermine civil rights protections in America.
According to the CAP, if enacted, Project 2025 would dismantle long standing protections in public accommodations, employment, and government programs, potentially pushing millions of Americans into second-class status based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics.
Project 2025 calls for sweeping changes that CAP warns could “legalize discrimination” by removing vital language from federal documents, stripping protections against discrimination for LGBTQI+ individuals, people of color, women, and more. The playbook instructs the next administration — presumably Trump — to erase terms such as “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” from all federal policies, effectively excluding these groups from federal protections. Targeting the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s legal framework, which guaranteed equal opportunities in employment, healthcare, and education, CAP emphasizes this action as a radical reversal of civil rights protections.
According to the CAP, Project 2025’s agenda excludes religious colleges, employers, and healthcare providers from anti-discrimination laws, allowing these entities to operate outside the protections afforded to Americans since the Civil Rights Movement. Officials at the CAP warn that these actions would allow private and public entities to openly discriminate against people based on characteristics Project 2025’s authors deem unworthy of legal protection.
Project 2025’s goals are also reflected in a wave of state-level legislation introduced nationwide. CAP’s study notes that hundreds of these bills already reflect an active “hostility” toward marginalized communities, including policies that criminalize homelessness, restrict access to health care for transgender individuals, and regulate bathroom access for transgender students.
According to CAP, Florida has the most book bans, followed by Texas, Missouri, Utah, and Pennsylvania—all states where Project 2025’s ideology has influenced legislative agendas. CAP warns that Project 2025 would make these restrictive policies the standard nationwide.
In a move CAP describes as an “equity purge,” Project 2025 targets key agencies like the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), pressing for a rollback of policies that promote racial and gender equity. CAP’s study argues that Project 2025’s rhetoric frames efforts to advance equity as “affirmative discrimination” while proposing to turn the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice against institutions engaged in diversity and equity initiatives.
According to the CAP’s findings, Project 2025 threatens to erase recent advances in workplace protections by directing the EEOC to stop issuing guidance on racial equity, pay equity, and protections against sexual harassment. CAP’s study warns that without the EEOC’s role as a safeguard, millions of Americans would face an increased risk of discrimination in hiring, pay, and workplace treatment.
Further disturbing, the CAP’s report highlights Project 2025’s goal to eliminate critical data collection on race, gender, and other demographics, obstructing federal agencies from understanding and addressing inequality. The CAP report underscores that federal data drives essential programming nationwide, noting that removing it would prevent agencies from identifying and addressing employment, health, and education disparities. Officials at the CAP call this a “deliberate” attempt to undercut the government’s ability to monitor and address inequality.
Project 2025 also seeks to dismantle protections established by the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision, which extended workplace discrimination protections to LGBTQI+ individuals under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. CAP notes that Project 2025 would instruct federal agencies to rescind this guidance, allowing businesses and institutions to openly refuse service or employment to LGBTQI+ individuals. CAP cautions that this would cement discriminatory practices nationwide.
In a statement, CAP officials warn that Project 2025’s framework isn’t isolated but an escalation of decades-long efforts to weaken anti-discrimination protections. The report contends that Project 2025 would bring a “new era of legalized discrimination” by giving federal backing to policies aimed at making it easier for institutions to discriminate against marginalized groups.