Starbucks Followed Eric Holder's Advice and Got Sued

Some members of corporate America are bending over backwards to advance minority employees to the exclusion of whites.

And they’re doing so on the advice of high-powered legal counsel.

But both the companies and their lawyers are about to discover that discrimination based on race is wrong no matter who is targeted.

Starbucks began replacing traditional merit-based employment with "diversity, equity and inclusion," (DEI) in response to some unfavorable publicity.

A Philadelphia Starbucks coffeehouse called the police on two black men who refused to either order anything or leave the premises.

A video of the men being handcuffed and led out by officers soon went viral.

It turned out the men were there waiting for a friend, who arrived just as the pair was escorted off the coffee shop.

The java giant responded with a "multiphase effort" to become "more diverse, equitable, and inclusive." It hired Covington & Burling, a top-ranked Washington, D.C. law firm, to conduct a series of "civil rights assessments" in that effort.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a senior partner at the firm, issued his final report to Starbucks in 2021, reportedly charging as much as $2,295 an hour for his services.

Holder recommended, for example:

• Tying executive pay to diversity targets
• Setting spending goals for "diverse suppliers"
• Initiating a mentorship program for “BIPOC" (Black, indigenous, people of color) employees

Starbucks reportedly followed the recommendations to the letter, and a year later they found themselves a defendant to a civil rights lawsuit because of it.

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, suggested the former attorney general may want to make sure his malpractice insurance is up-to-date.

He told Newsmax that as a general rule, "in order to commit legal malpractice, . . . you have to show three things." They are:

1. Proof of an attorney-client relationship
2. The attorney breached his duty to give sound legal advice
3. The client suffered damages as a result

Von Spakovsky, who cowrote "Our Broken Elections," explained that "the first is obvious, as is the third, given the cost of a class action lawsuit, you obviously have the damages. And so it comes down to the second — did he breach his professional defy?"

He concluded "I don’t think there’s any question that he committed legal malpractice."

Von Spakovsky explained, "keep in mind that, according to the report I saw, Eric Holder made all these recommendations to Starbucks, and nowhere in the report did he talk about the legality of the policies. And if that’s true, that’s per se legal malpractice, because everything that he was recommending that they do violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

That act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, expressly prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

Given that the law has been around for nearly 60 years — since Holder became a teenager — how could he give such horrible legal advice?

Von Spakovsky believes the dude just can’t help himself.

"When Eric Holder was attorney general, John Fund and I actually wrote a book about Eric Holder and his mismanagement of the Justice Department. It was called "Obama’s Enforcer."

At the time Holder made no secret of the fact, and even bragged that he was "Obama’s wingman," rather than the director of an independent agency based on equal justice for all.

"What I learned in all my reattach about Holder is that his ideology blinds him to his legal responsibilities."

Von Spakovsky explained that Holder "so believes in racial preferences that he just ignores the fact that they’re illegal."

Accordingly, "In one way I was astonished by this story, and in another way I wasn’t. After having researched and talked to the people who knew him, I’m not surprised that he would do this."

And Starbucks wasn’t the only corporate giant to take a leap of faith off the high board.

Consumer electronics and retail appliance chain Best Buy reportedly did much the same — discriminate against white employees in favor of minorities, according to a corporate memo..

Best Buy reportedly offers a "professional development program" to salaried employees who’ve worked more than a year at Best Buy, and identify as Black, Latino, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander, and will commit to the hours of the available programs.

America First Legal encouraged Best Buy’s discriminated employees to reach out to their legal organization.

"If you are a current Best Buy employee who does not qualify for this program because of your race, we want to hear from you today," they said.

No one doubts that minorities were the targets of discrimination.

But as U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts observed, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Discriminating against another group won’t do it; you’re just trading one evil for another.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.