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Attorney General Pam Bondi ended federal lawsuits the Biden
administration had filed against local police and fire departments over their
merit-based hiring policies.
During the Biden administration, the Justice Department's
Office for Civil Rights sued local emergency services for prioritizing merit in
hiring rather than making decisions based on race.
"Despite no evidence of intentional discrimination—only
statistical disparities—the previous administration characterized the aptitude
tests at issue in these cases as discriminatory to advance a DEI agenda,"
the Justice Department stated in a press release.
"And it sought to force cities to implement DEI-based
hiring in response and to spend millions of dollars of public funds paying
previous applicants who received lower test scores, regardless of their
qualifications," the statement added.