Thursday has been a rather busy day of judges ruling against the Trump administration, as Jeff has been covering. Another decision, this one to do with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in public schools, came from yet another district judge, in this case Judge Landya B. McCafferty. She serves as the chief U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire and, like so many other judges who have ruled against the Trump administration, was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
As The New York Times reported, McCafferty does not feel that the administration provided enough of a definition of DEI, and also raised concerns with free speech:
A federal judge in New Hampshire limited on Thursday the Trump administration’s ability to withhold federal funds from public schools that have certain diversity and equity initiatives.
The judge, Landya B. McCafferty, said that the administration had not provided an adequately detailed definition of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” and that its policy threatened to restrict free speech in the classroom while overstepping the executive branch’s legal authority over local schools.
She also wrote that the loss of federal funding “would cripple the operations of many educational institutions.”
The decision followed a demand earlier this month by the Trump administration that all 50 state education agencies attest that their schools do not use D.E.I. practices that violate President Trump’s interpretation of civil rights law. Otherwise, they would risk losing billions in Title I money, which is targeted toward low-income students. About a dozen states, mostly Democratic leaning, refused to sign the document.
In issuing her decision, Judge McCafferty declined to issue a nationwide pause on the policy. Instead, she limited her ruling to schools that employ or contract with at least one member of the groups that brought the lawsuit: the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, and the Center for Black Educator Development, a nonprofit that seeks to recruit and train Black teachers.
The N.E.A. has about three million members, including some in states that bar teachers from collective bargaining. It is possible that most school districts in the nation would be affected by the ruling.
Judge McCafferty was appointed by former President Barack Obama. The Trump administration is expected to appeal her ruling.
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The report also mentions that questions in the case may reach the U.S. Supreme Court, the same which can be said for plenty of other rulings that have come down from district judges against the Trump administration. The Court has ruled on a few matters thus far, though at times Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Amy Comey Barrett have ruffled the feathers of Republicans, given that one or both of them have sided with the three liberal justices on the Court.
"Roberts" has been trending on X for Thursday, mostly in reference to the chief justice. Two other rulings against the Trump administration, including a ruling against cutting funding from sanctuary cities and even against requiring proof of citizenship to vote, have also been trending. Both decisions came from district judges, and many have called the rulings out for amounting to a "judicial coup."
Others have mocked these rulings, and the authority that district judges have been exercising, in other ways.
"You know, I'm something of a president myself." https://t.co/2tvLGfRhzu pic.twitter.com/FXxykbs1hn
— U.S. Ministry of Truth (@USMiniTru) April 24, 2025
🚨 JUDICIAL COUP CONTINUES: Another one…. judge blocks Trump from banning DEI in K-12 schools - AP
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 24, 2025
We elected a President.
At this point, we will be relying on Justices Roberts and Amy Barrett to uphold a sizable portion of Trump’s ELECTED, Article 2-compliant agenda. pic.twitter.com/Lq6J9jrvR8
Congress has taken note of the need to rein in district judges. Earlier this month, the House passed a bill from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) that would do just that, with the legislation known as that the No Rogue Rulings Act of 2025 (NORRA).
Throughout the 2024 campaign and close to his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump made his opposition to DEI quite known. On Wednesday night, the president signed several executive orders, including those to do with education and/or DEI.
Among those, as we covered at the time, included an executive order against federal accreditors using DEI standards and another one revoking guidance from the Obama-Biden administration that relied on DEI and Critical Race Theory for disciplinary actions in schools.
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