(Bloomberg) -- The US Justice Department defended its pledge to consider diversity and inclusion when selecting an independent monitor as part of its proposed plea agreement with Boeing Co. over two fatal crashes, after the judge overseeing the case sought additional information about the issue.
The DOJ said the language — which says the selection of a monitor “shall be made in keeping with the Department’s commitment to diversity and inclusion” — codifies longstanding practice at the agency.
“This new language reflected not a change in policy, but rather a principle that has always governed the process: that selection of a monitor must be based solely on merit, from the broadest possible pool of qualified candidates,” lawyers for the government said in a Friday filing.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor had asked prosecutors to provide details about how the DEI pledge would impact the choice of an outside monitor to observe Boeing’s compliance with the proposed plea agreement. O’Connor must decide whether to approve the plea deal, despite objections from families of some crash victims that the terms are too lenient.
Lawyers for the family members argued that the court should be responsible for selecting a corporate monitor, rather than the government, with input from Boeing.
O’Connor said he wanted more information about how the DEI pledge would impact the safety and compliance efforts Boeing would undertake as part of the agreement and how much of an impact it would have on the government’s selection process.
The unusual request from O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, appears to reflect concerns DEI critics have raised in recent years, that such efforts undermine merit-based decision-making. Diversity initiatives have faced heightened scrutiny since the US Supreme Court last year outlawed the use of race as a factor in college admissions.
O’Connor must now decide whether to accept the proposed plea deal, call for Boeing to stand trial or send prosecutors and the aircraft maker back to the drawing board to craft a new agreement.
Under the current deal, Boeing would plead guilty to criminal conspiracy and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and invest even more in safety improvements. Families of some crash victims said the deal didn’t go far enough to hold Boeing accountable for the 346 fatalities.
The case is US v. Boeing, 21-cr-005, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth).
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