Living in the United States in 2024, it’s rarely surprising to see when anything becomes a culture war issue. When Bud Light became a partisan issue last year — Bud Light, of all things! — that seemed to be the apex of this tendency. But when you look upon something and think, “There’s no way that could be politicized,” sometimes the world finds a way.
Earlier this year, the U.S. government offered airplane manufacturer Boeing a plea agreement over two crashes that took the lives of 346 passengers. This week, a district court judge rejected the agreement. That in and of itself isn’t surprising, but the reason cited for it was.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas ruled against the plea agreement, giving both sides 30 days to come up with an alternative. Judge O’Connor’s ruling did not focus on the amount or specifics of restitution paid to families of the deceased. Instead, they served as an attack on D.E.I. policies, which have been in the national spotlight in recent months.
Specifically, Judge O’Connor’s ruling criticized the role of D.E.I. in hiring a monitor to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the federal plea agreement. “[T]he Court requested the Government and Boeing file supplemental briefing to explain how this specific provision furthers anti-fraud and ethics compliance and how it will practically be applied to the monitor-selection process,” O’Connor wrote. “The briefing was telling.”
The bulk of the ruling focuses on O’Connor’s critique of D.E.I. policies and his argument that they were at odds with a merit-based approach to selecting the monitor. In writing this, O’Connor drew upon a number of sources, including a critique of changes made to the D.E.I. section of Boeing’s website.
The penultimate page of the ruling introduces a second argument to the effect that the “compliance-monitor provisions erroneously marginalize the Court.” Specifically, O’Connor takes issue with the fact that the court would not be able to “[consider] violations of the monitor’s anti-fraud recommendations.”
Department of Justice Reportedly Offers Boeing a Plea Deal
What’s next for the troubled airline manufacturer?If O’Connor’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s made a practice of wide-ranging rulings in high-profile cases, including multiple attacks on the Affordable Care Act. As for how the government and Boeing will respond to this, we’ll have a sense within the next 30 days — along with what will almost certainly be plenty of political debate to accompany it.
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