The department had ordered educational institutions to cut diversity initiatives or else be defunded
Maryland-based US district judge Stephanie Gallagher has ruled as illegal the US Education Department’s threats to cut federal funding from educational institutions implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, reported the Associated Press.
On February 14, the department had issued a memo stating that schools would be in breach of federal civil rights law if they considered race in decisions related to matters like admissions, financial aid, or hiring. Another April memo ordered state education agencies to certify that they were not implementing DEI practices; otherwise, they could be prosecuted under the False Claims Act and be defunded.
The American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association sued the Education Department over the February memo, claiming that it breached the First and Fifth Amendments. The American Federation of Teachers accused the US government of setting what it called “unclear and highly subjective” limits on US schools and made educators “choose between chilling their constitutionally protected speech and association or risk losing federal funds and being subject to prosecution,” per statements published by AP News.
The National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union also filed a suit that led to judges in Maryland, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C. rejecting parts of the Education Department’s measures against DEI.
The department’s directives were placed on hold in April, and Gallagher’s decision requires the guidance to be eliminated completely on the grounds that it violated procedural requirements. The department had argued that the memos merely reminded schools that discrimination was against the law, but the judge shot it down.
“It 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,” Gallagher wrote in a snippet of the ruling that was published by AP News.
Nonetheless, the judge clarified in a statement published by AP News that the ruling did not indicate an opinion on whether the directives were “good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair.”
Legal advocacy firm Democracy Forward, which acted for the plaintiffs, praised the decision.
“Threatening teachers and sowing chaos in schools throughout America is part of the administration’s war on education, and today the people won,” Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement published by AP News.
The Education Department released a statement last Thursday August 14 indicating its disappointment with Gallagher’s ruling; nonetheless, it said in a snippet published by AP News that “judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level.”
