Once courted as architects of inclusion during a corporate DEI boom, many culture and equity leaders are now in court, suing the very organizations that hired them. Their complaints allege discrimination and retaliation as the diversity programs they led, once prized as cultural cornerstones, are dismantled due to political and regulatory pressure. Recent lawsuits in California and Illinois spotlight the reversal: the champions of inclusion are the latest litigants; the plaintiffs allege retaliation for resisting rollbacks or challenging what they characterize to be politically charged directives.