Teachers union sues over Trump admin’s DEI warning to schools

The American Federation of Teachers sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its warning to schools that they may lose federal funding if they persist with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, alleges the Education Department’s Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter is unconstitutionally vague and runs afoul of the First Amendment's free speech protections.

“That racial discrimination was written into the laws of the United States is a historical fact that cannot be erased by a Dear Colleague Letter,” the complaint states. “Black Americans were enslaved by law, laws prevented Black Americans from owning property, attending public schools, and voting. This is, by definition, a legal structure that imposes differences based on race.”

“It is therefore not possible to teach bare factual information about history without acknowledging structural racism—but doing so would now seem to constitute illegal discrimination in the eyes of the Department of Education,” it continued.

An Education Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The teachers union filed Tuesday’s lawsuit alongside its Maryland arm and the American Sociological Association. They are represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation, a left-leaning organization that is backing more than a dozen lawsuits against the new administration.

The case was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee.

The Education Department's scrutiny comes as the Trump administration looks to broadly end the federal government’s support for diversity programs, leaving DEI leaders scrambling to respond and spurring a wave of litigation. Last week, a judge indefinitely blocked parts of Trump’s executive orders that sought to terminate DEI-related contracts across the executive branch.

The Feb. 14 letter warned the administration would begin assessing K-12 schools' and colleges' compliance in two weeks, pointing to the Supreme Court's decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, as legal justification.

“Although SFFA addressed admissions decisions, the Supreme Court’s holding applies more broadly. At its core, 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,” the letter said.

But the new lawsuit claims the administration is misrepresenting the high court’s ruling in its quest to crack down on DEI.

“This Letter is an unlawful attempt by the Department to impose this administration’s particular views of how schools should operate as if it were the law. But it is not,” the lawsuit states.

“Title VI’s requirements have not changed, nor has the meaning of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, despite the Department’s views on the matter,” it continued.

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