WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, America First Legal (AFL) formally requested that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel launch an immediate investigation into Henry Ford Health (HFH), a Detroit-based healthcare system, based on strong evidence suggesting it engages in a pattern and practice of illegal race- and sex-based discrimination in employment and patient access and care under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI).
In its 14-page letter to the Attorney General, AFL details how HFH has embedded race-, sex-, and identity-based preferences into every aspect of its operations. From hiring and executive bonuses to medical education, clinical training, and organ transplant eligibility, HFH has replaced merit and medical necessity with demographic quotas and ideological conformity.
“HFH has turned healthcare into a DEI loyalty program where race, sex, and ideology, not merit or need, determine employment opportunity and patient access and care,” said Megan Redshaw, an attorney for America First Legal. “This isn’t inclusion, it’s discrimination — and Michigan’s top law enforcement officer has a duty to dismantle it.”
Since 2021, HFH has received nearly $1 billion in federally obligated DEI-related grants and operates publicly funded residency and research programs in partnership with Michigan State University and Wayne State University. Internal policy documents reveal that HFH:
- Adopted a multi-year “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Strategic Plan” that embeds race-, sex-, and identity-based preferences into governance, hiring, clinical protocols, and institutional performance metrics.
- Restricts medical clerkship stipends based on race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity — explicitly limiting eligibility to racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQI-identified or gender nonconforming individuals, and excluding others based solely on immutable characteristics.
- Links executive compensation to DEI benchmarks, with up to 10 percent of leadership bonuses contingent on meeting race- and sex-based hiring quotas, financially incentivizing unlawful employment discrimination.
- Empowers an internal “Executive Diversity Recruitment Committee” to enforce race- and sex-based hiring quotas, explicitly authorizing it to block senior-level appointments that fail to meet demographic targets.
- Uses race and “social vulnerability” to determine organ transplant eligibility, subordinating medical urgency to demographic benchmarks set by HFH and federal “health equity” models.
- Operates identity-restricted residency and clerkship programs in partnership with Michigan’s public universities, categorically excluding qualified applicants based on race, sex, or other protected traits in violation of state civil rights laws.
HFH’s conduct is also the subject of a federal civil rights complaint filed by AFL with the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, AFL’s letter makes clear that HFH’s practices independently violate Michigan law.
“Henry Ford Health has built a sprawling, taxpayer-funded system of discrimination that touches every corner of its operations — from the exam room to the boardroom. It’s not just a policy here or a hiring decision there — it’s a deliberate, institutional framework that prioritizes identity politics over equal treatment under the law,” Redshaw said. “No individual should ever be denied care, opportunity, or advancement because they don’t fit a bureaucratic DEI profile. This isn’t equity, it’s a civil rights violation — plain and simple.”
AFL will continue fighting relentlessly to protect every American citizen’s civil rights.
Read the full letter here.
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