The activist group that defeated affirmative action in college admissions has joined the state of Tennessee in a lawsuit that claims the federal Hispanic Serving Institutions grant program is discriminatory and arbitrary.
Students for Fair Admissions and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti are suing the U.S. Department of Education, claiming the 25% Hispanic enrollment threshold that qualifies a college or university as an HSI is unfair to schools with lower percentages of Hispanic students.
The suit calls the standard “a strict racial gatekeeper” that prevents some colleges and universities from receiving millions of dollars in grants. It seeks to declare the HSI program unconstitutional and prohibit the Department of Education from using racial or ethnic thresholds when determining grant eligibility.
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“This lawsuit is not about denying opportunity to any racial or ethnic group,” said Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions. “No student or institution should be denied opportunity because they fall on the wrong side of an ethnic quota.”
The complaint notes that none of the colleges or universities in Tennessee, even those that serve larger numbers of low-income students, meet the 25% threshold. More than 60% of students at the University of Memphis identify as minorities.
Skrmetti, the attorney general, contends the HSI forces his state’s colleges to “either engage in illegal racial balancing in admissions to qualify for grants or forgo tens of millions of dollars in federal support.”
“Treating people differently because of their skin color and ancestry drags our country backward,” Skrmetti said in a press release. “The HSI program perversely deprives even needy Hispanic students of the benefits of this funding if they attend institutions that don’t meet the government’s arbitrary quota.”
Students for Fair Admissions’ lawsuit against Harvard resulted in the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling outlawing the use of race in college admissions.
