Complaint: HHS Grants Violate Bans on Racial Preferences

Three Department of Health and Human Services grant programs created under then-President Joe Biden violate Trump administration bans on racial preferences in federal funding for higher education.

That's according to a complaint filed with the agency's Office for Civil Rights, The Washington Times reported Monday.

"Getting the discrimination created under the Biden administration out of the system is like trying to get soap out of a sponge," said Cornell University law professor William Jacobson, who founded the Equal Protection Project to promote colorblind civil rights policies. "No matter how much you squeeze, there always seems to be more."

Jacobson filed the complaint with HHS, requesting in a letter that the programs be canceled immediately.

He cited three programs that the Biden administration started in September 2024 to distribute $5.7 million in minority fellowships for Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students training to become counselors and social workers, according to The Washington Times.

Most of the $2.77 million already awarded has been distributed under President Donald Trump. 

"These practices violate the federal civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees of equal protection, including Title VI and the Fifth Amendment," Jacobson wrote in his letter to HHS, which was shared with the news outlet. "Such practices also violate Executive Order 14173, which, among other directives, requires executive departments to eliminate racial and other unlawful preferences."

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids those who get federal funding from discriminating based on race, skin color, or national origin.

The Fifth Amendment contains a due process clause that federal courts have long interpreted to require equal protection under the law for those in similar circumstances, including federal grant programs.

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