NAACP Lawsuit Challenges Education Department Over DEI Ban

The department had said it would ‘no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination’ in schools and colleges.

Children look at their school grounds as they wait for class in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Dec. 7, 2020. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has sued the Department of Education (ED) following the agency’s crackdown against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at educational institutions.

On Feb. 14, the ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a letter to educational institutions receiving federal funds, notifying them to cease any use of race preferences or stereotypes when determining scholarships, admissions, prizes, hiring, promotions, sanctions, and other programs or activities.

Many institutions have used the false premise of the United States being built upon “systemic and structural racism,” advancing discriminatory practices on this basis and attempting to justify them under the banner of DEI, the letter said.

The letter criticized DEI programs prioritizing certain ethnicities while teaching students that people of a certain race “bear unique moral burdens that others do not.” Such ideologies stigmatize students from these races, denying them the ability to fully participate in school life, the letter stated.

“The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions,” the letter read.

OCR then published an FAQ detailing some of the questions that may arise as a result of the letter.

On April 3, ED sent letters to state commissioners overseeing K-12 state education agencies, asking them to certify their compliance with the anti-discrimination obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to continue receiving federal funds.

In a lawsuit filed on April 15 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the NAACP said the policies outlined in these “Title VI Documents” published by the education department “discriminate against NAACP members.”

The lawsuit alleged that the policies “violate due process with unconstitutionally vague terms, and infringe upon NAACP members’ First Amendment rights to continue receiving instruction and programming free from viewpoint discrimination.”

Title VI Documents allegedly ask schools to comply with ED’s interpretation of Title VI “by threatening them with unjustified funding cuts and legal challenges if they do not eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs,” the lawsuit stated.

The complaint said that due to the new ED stance under the Trump administration, NAACP members have been denied or face the imminent loss of several programs and policies.

For instance, a school district in Iowa withdrew its students, including a child of an NAACP member, from an African American reading event after receiving the ED’s Feb. 14 letter against DEI initiatives.

In New Jersey, Rowan University announced in late February that it realigned and reorganized several departments within the former Division of Inclusive Excellence, Community & Belonging, an action that “directly affects the lives of Black students,” said the lawsuit.

“NAACP members face a substantial risk that their children’s schools will be forced to cease all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, inclusive curricula, restorative justice programs, efforts to recruit Black faculty, and other programs that ensure equal opportunities for Black students.”

ED has paused enforcement of its new anti-DEI policy until April 24.

The NAACP asked the court to declare Title VI Documents unlawful and unconstitutional and enter a preliminary injunction banning the enforcement of these measures.

Earlier this month, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor criticized the implementation of the DEI agenda for allegedly instituting discriminatory and preferential measures in educational institutions.

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right. When state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal antidiscrimination requirements,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we have seen too many schools flout or outright violate these obligations, including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics in clear violation of Title VI.”

DEI Debate

Democrats have criticized the Trump administration’s policies targeting DEI. On April 2, House Democrats met with Education Secretary Linda McMahon to convey their concerns regarding federal funding for special education programs and low-income districts.

During a press conference that day, Democrats said Trump was waging a “war on DEI” and that the ED’s Office of Civil Rights was established to deal with harassment and discrimination, not to end diversity and equity initiatives.

“Civil Rights does become the crux of the controversy,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).

“We don’t want the second Trump administration to be the moment where all of the progress that we’ve made in American history toward an equal and excellent education for everybody suddenly goes down the drain.”

In its Feb. 14 letter to educational institutions, ED clarified that it would evaluate whether the use of race is covered by Title VI within the framework set by the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

In this case, the court had deemed racial preferences in college admissions to be unlawful.

The Supreme Court made it clear that classifying and assigning students on the basis of race is only lawful if it satisfies “strict scrutiny,” meaning that the use of race should be “necessary” to achieve a compelling interest, the letter said.

The Supreme Court has only recognized two interests as “compelling” in this regard, the ED wrote. First is to remediate “specific, identified instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute.” The second is for “avoiding imminent and serious risks to human safety in prisons, such as a race riot.”

“Nebulous concepts like racial balancing and diversity are not compelling interests,” the letter said. The court clarified that an individual’s race “may never be used against him” and that such an identity “may not operate as a stereotype” when the government makes decisions.

Last month, the education department said it was investigating over 50 universities for racial discrimination, in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order to end DEI initiatives.