61 | EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2026 EDITION ©2026 Seyfarth Shaw LLP PART IV: By The Numbers: EEOC Data Analysis A. Trends in EEOC Federal Court Filings in FY 2025 Each fiscal year we analyze the types of lawsuits the EEOC files, in terms of the statutes and theories of discrimination alleged, as well as when and where the cases were filed. The bottom line for FY 2025 is that we saw a historic downturn in litigation activity, as the EEOC filed merit 93 lawsuits this fiscal year, compared to its 111 filings in FY 2024. In previous administrations, the EEOC’s litigation arm was extraordinarily active, filing as many as 300 merit lawsuits in a given year. These high levels of EEOC filing activity dropped significantly under the first Trump Administration, and this trend continued through the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, we previously reported totals of 94 merit filings in FY 2020, 111 filings in FY 2021, and 94 filing in FY 2022. By FY 2023, however, the EEOC had installed a Democratic majority, as well as securing a sizable budget increase from Congress leading it to file 144 merit lawsuits that year. With this background in mind, the EEOC’s FY 2025 started obscured by questions surrounding an upcoming presidential election and how it would shape the direction of EEOC enforcement. Following the election, President Trump took a series of swift actions, some unprecedented, that had a significant impact on EEOC leadership and enforcement. Which leads us to the most recent fiscal year from October 2024 through September 2025. The EEOC filed just 93 merit lawsuits in FY 2025. This represents not only a ten-year low, but also one of the lowest numbers of total filings lodged by the Commission in the past three decades. To put this number into context, in FY 2023, the EEOC filed 71 lawsuits in September alone. While there are still meaningful takeaways from the EEOC’s areas of focus in FY 2025, the bottom line is that EEOC litigation activity has now remained at historically low levels for the second consecutive year. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Sep. Aug. Jul. Jun. May Apr. Mar. Feb. Jan. Dec. Nov. Oct. FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Cases Filed by Month FY 2022-2025 ©2026 Seyfarth Shaw LLP
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