Department of Education policy targeting DEI and other race-related school programs is likely unconstitutional, judge rules

CNN
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A federal judge significantly curtailed the Trump administration from implementing a policy that threatens to withhold federal funding from schools for engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI – programs or if they incorporate race in certain ways in many other aspects of student life.

US District Judge Landya McCafferty said in a scathing opinion that the administration’s policy, laid out by the Department of Education in a letter to educators earlier this year, was “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” likely violating the First Amendment’s Free Speech protections.

She also concluded that the National Education Association, the administration’s opponent in the case, was likely to succeed in its arguments that the policy was unconstitutionally vague and that the agency ran afoul of procedural steps required by law in how it implemented the policy.

“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson’s Choice,” the judge, a Barack Obama appointee who sits in New Hampshire, wrote, noting that the educators must choose between teaching curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risking their professional credentials by aiding by the Trump policy.

“The Constitution requires more,” she wrote.

McCafferty declined to issue a nationwide order blocking the policy, but is halting the administration from enforcing it against any school that employs members of the National Education Association and receives federal funding.

Her preliminary injunction comes after the administration and the challengers had reached a short-term agreement to delay implementation of the policy, included a certification process that would require schools to turn over certain information, so that the judge could consider the case. That agreement was set to expire on Thursday.

At least two other courts are considering challenges to the policy, including a DC judge who is hearing arguments in the lawsuit before her on Thursday.

This story is breaking and will be updated.