Federal judges in Maryland, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., on Thursday blocked Republican President Donald Trump's administration from following through on threats to cut off funding to public schools that engage in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The trio of rulings - two by judges whom Trump appointed during his first term in office - came in lawsuits by teachers unions and civil rights groups that sued to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding to K-12 schools and universities that did not cease what it called "discriminatory" DEI initiatives.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the administration is likely to appeal the decisions.
The policy at issue was outlined in a February 14 "Dear Colleague" letter from the Education Department that the administration said was intended to remind schools that receive federal funding of their obligations to comply with existing civil rights law.
The letter said schools in recent years had embraced "pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences" and "toxically indoctrinated" students by teaching about the history of systemic racism.
The letter said DEI proponents had been "smuggling" such practices into everyday training, programming and discipline, and the department advised schools that it would take action if they did not ensure their practices followed the law.
But U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty in Concord, New Hampshire, sided with the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union, and two other groups in finding the policy was unconstitutionally vague and violated educators' free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
McCafferty, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said that while the letter made clear the department's view that DEI programs violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it never defined what a "DEI program" even was.
"DEI as a concept is broad: one can imagine a wide range of viewpoints on what the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion mean when describing a program or practice," she wrote.
She said the policy infringed the First Amendment rights of university professors, also by targeting their speech based on viewpoint if they, for example, teach students about structural racism in America.
Shortly after McCafferty ruled, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Baltimore issued an order similarly halting the Education Department's policy at the behest of the American Federation of Teachers, the American Sociological Association and others.
Gallagher, a Trump appointee, said the Education Department failed to follow proper rulemaking processes and lacked the authority to adopt the policy under the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979.
That law bars the Education Department from directing or supervising a school's curriculum, instructional program, administration or personnel, or its selection of instructional materials like textbooks.
In the Washington, D.C., case, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which brought the case, that the policy was too vague.
Her ruling blocked the department from enforcing a requirement it adopted on April 3 mandating that state educational agencies certify compliance with the February policy by Thursday or lose federal funding.
Skye Perryman, whose liberal-leaning legal group Democracy Forward represented the plaintiffs in the Maryland case, in a statement said the ruling "affirms what we have always known: this administration’s attempts to censor schools, teachers, educators, colleges, and universities is unlawful."
