The New York Times said in a court filing on Friday that the Trump administration had violated the newspaper’s First Amendment rights by suing it for employment discrimination. The Times called the government’s suit an act of retaliation for its coverage of the Trump presidency.
In May, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a civil rights lawsuit against The Times in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, claiming that the newspaper unlawfully discriminated against a white male employee who did not get a sought-after promotion.
“The commission’s retaliatory, bad faith use of its authority to target The Times violates the First and Fifth Amendments” and “poses a uniquely insidious threat to a free and independent press,” lawyers for The Times said in a counterclaim.
The Times said the E.E.O.C. had sued after President Trump and his aides lashed out at the company for its coverage of the administration, including articles about Mr. Trump’s plans to build a ballroom at the White House, his health and the war with Iran.
It said the lawsuit had been filed just days after The Times published two articles about the E.E.O.C. In one, agency employees described feeling pressure to bring in cases alleging discrimination against white men and antisemitism on college campuses.
The E.E.O.C.’s case against The Times stems from a complaint filed with the commission last year by an editor then on the staff who applied for a job as deputy real estate editor in 2025. The job went to a multiracial woman.
The Times’s “unlawful employment practices” were “done with malice or with reckless indifference” to the employee’s “federally protected rights,” the E.E.O.C. complaint said. The agency sought a court order stopping discrimination against the employee, plus compensation and a deputy editor position for the editor.
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A spokeswoman for The Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, pointed to her statement from May, when she said the newspaper’s “employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world.”
The E.E.O.C. declined to comment on active litigation.
The editor, Bryant Rousseau, resigned from The Times in early June. He could not be reached, and his lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Rousseau made a separate claim against The Times in the same case in June, echoing the E.E.O.C.’s legal arguments and highlighting his experience in real estate coverage. Before arriving at The Times, Mr. Rousseau “spent more than seven years leading highly respected magazines dedicated to real estate development, the housing market, architecture and design,” it said.
The E.E.O.C. said Mr. Rousseau, who was not identified by name in its suit, had been interviewed for the deputy real estate editor position but not selected for a later-stage interview. It also argued that he was more qualified than the person who got the job. It quoted from The Times’s diversity and inclusion reports that the E.E.O.C. said showed “express efforts to make employment decisions on the basis of race and sex to achieve its desired demographic goals.”
The Times said in its counterclaim that the company had informed the commission before the initial lawsuit that “candidates of color of both sexes with more real estate experience than Mr. Rousseau also were not advanced during the hiring process.” It said that disproved the E.E.O.C.’s claims that his real estate experience should have earned him a later-stage interview and that the decision not to advance him was based on his race and sex.
The Times is seeking the dismissal of the E.E.O.C.’s complaint as well as the payment of its costs and attorneys’ fees. It also asked for a declaration that the agency violated The Times’s constitutional rights.
The Times previously accused the administration of retaliation in a suit challenging the efforts of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to limit journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
In recent years, Mr. Trump and his administration have attacked the news media and introduced restrictions on reporters covering the administration. Mr. Trump has sued ABC, the BBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register and The Times.
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