Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, informed U.S. colleges and universities Tuesday that government funding will be chopped if they continue to apply diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
Trainor's "Dear Colleague Letter" lists areas where DEI is prohibited, including hiring, promoting, compensating, assessing scholarships, awarding prizes, and disciplining.
The list also includes "and beyond" as a way of saying even if not specified in the letter, continued use of DEI practices in any fashion constitutes what the Trump administration will consider to be contrary to the government's policies.
Trainor told schools that the Education Department will begin taking action in 14 days to assess compliance.
The contentious issue is already facing a court challenge from two groups: The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and the American Association of University Professors have sued the Trump administration. They claim the government's DEI actions are beyond the president's authority to include as part of an executive order, according to The Hill.
The government compliance letter addresses that issue, saying the Supreme Court has already decided how DEI should be viewed.
In Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard, the U.S. Supreme Court not only ended racial preferences in school admissions, but articulated a general legal principle on the law of race, color, and national origin discrimination — namely, where an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another, and race is a factor in the different treatment, the educational institution has violated the law.
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