(LifeSiteNews) — Federal judges in Maryland, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia have issued temporary injunctions on the Trump administration’s efforts to use the federal purse strings to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in public schools and higher education.
In a February 14 letter, U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor notified school administrators that, per the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 Harvard decision striking down racial preferences in college admissions, “the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law. Federal law thus prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”
“DEI programs, for example, frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not,” the letter continued. “Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes. Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school.” Institutions were given two weeks to eliminate such discriminatory practices or risk losing federal funding.
Inside Higher Ed reports that on April 24, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland, and U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia issued rulings in separate lawsuits that, taken together, effectively block enforcement of the letter nationwide.
The challengers argue that the administration has not followed proper procedure for imposing new requirements and that the letter is unclear enough that it would chill schools away from anything that could even be indirectly considered DEI; the government said that the letter merely “clarif[ies] what the existing obligations are under Title VI” of the federal Civil Rights Act.
The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality, race, and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas.
The Trump administration has taken aim at many left-wing uses of taxpayer dollars, including pro-abortion and pro-censorship activity through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” through the National Science Foundation, and billions to left-wing “green energy” nonprofits through the Environmental Protection Agency.
