Trump administration<\/a> actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation\u2019s schools and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn her ruling, US district judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the education department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidance has been on hold since April when three federal judges blocked various portions of the education department\u2019s anti-DEI measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Thursday ruling followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government\u2019s actions in a February lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case centers on two education department memos ordering schools and universities to end all \u201crace-based decision-making\u201d or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It\u2019s part of a campaign to end practices the Trump administration frames as discrimination against white and Asian American students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new ruling orders the department to scrap the guidance because it runs afoul of procedural requirements, though Gallagher wrote that she took no view on whether the policies were \u201cgood or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gallagher, who was appointed by Donald Trump, rejected the government\u2019s argument that the memos simply served to remind schools that discrimination is illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct, causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished,\u201d Gallagher wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy firm representing the plaintiffs, called it an important victory over the administration\u2019s attack on DEI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThreatening teachers and sowing chaos in schools throughout America is part of the administration\u2019s war on education, and today the people won,\u201d said Skye Perryman, the group\u2019s president and CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The education department did not immediately comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conflict started with a 14 February memo declaring that any consideration of race in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other aspects of academic and student life would be considered a violation of federal civil rights law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memo dramatically expanded the government\u2019s interpretation of a 2023 supreme court decision barring colleges from considering race in admissions decisions. The government argued the ruling applied not only to admissions but across all of education, forbidding \u201crace-based preferences\u201d of any kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEducational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon \u2018systemic and structural racism\u2019 and advanced discriminatory policies and practices,\u201d wrote Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A further memo in April asked state education agencies to certify they were not using \u201cillegal DEI practices\u201d. Violators risked losing federal money and being prosecuted under the False Claims Act, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total, the guidance amounted to a full-scale reframing of the government\u2019s approach to civil rights in education. It took aim at policies that were created to address longstanding racial disparities, saying those practices were their own form of discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memos drew a wave of backlash from states and education groups that called it illegal government censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its lawsuit, the American Federation of Teachers said the government was imposing \u201cunclear and highly subjective\u201d limits on schools across the country. It said teachers and professors had to \u201cchoose between chilling their constitutionally protected speech and association or risk losing federal funds and being subject to prosecution\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Education department found to have violated law when it threatened to cut funds from institutions that backed DEI A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation\u2019s schools and universities. In her ruling, US district judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2145,8591,7582,1556,1230],"class_list":["post-46143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-colleges","tag-dei","tag-judges","tag-schools","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46145,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46143\/revisions\/46145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}