School districts, colleges and all other federal funding recipients were warned this week that the Department of Justice now considers DEI programs discriminatory and, therefore, illegal.
Programs operated by schools may not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or other protected characteristics—”no matter the program’s labels, objectives, or intentions,” the agency said in a statement.
“This Department of Justice will not stand by while recipients of federal funds engage in illegal discrimination,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “This guidance will ensure we are serving the American people and not ideological agendas.”
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The Department of Justice issued guidance to help federal funding recipients avoid the legal risks of violating the Trump administration’s latest set of restrictions. The agency shared a list of what it describes as best practices:
- Use of “DEI,” “equity” or other euphemistic terms does not excuse unlawful discrimination or absolve parties from scrutiny regarding potential violations.
- Using race, sex, or other protected characteristics for employment, program participation, resource allocation or other similar activities, opportunities or benefits is unlawful, except in rare cases where such discrimination satisfies the relevant level of judicial scrutiny.
- Compelling employees to share intimate spaces with the opposite sex or allowing men to compete in women’s athletic competitions would typically be unlawful.
- “Facially neutral criteria”—such as cultural competence or lived experience—that function as proxies for protected characteristics violate federal law if designed or applied to advantage or disadvantage individuals based on protected characteristics.
- Federal funds cannot support third-party programs that discriminate.
- Individuals who object to or refuse to participate in discriminatory programs, trainings, or policies are protected from adverse actions like termination or exclusion based on that individual’s opposition to those practices.
Read the full guidance here.
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