America First Legal filed a formal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice supporting its ongoing investigation into Harvard University.
The complaint calls for an immediate enforcement action against Harvard Medical School for its unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. The complaint alleges that Harvard is violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, multiple civil rights statutes, and President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Orders by embedding race-, sex-, and identity-based discrimination throughout its medical school admissions, clerkships, scholarships, research initiatives, and affiliated residency programs.
“This is not only illegal, it is unethical. By using new labels to sustain the same discriminatory system and elevating identity over individual merit, Harvard is turning the training of physicians into a vehicle for demographic engineering and social activism,” said Megan Redshaw, counsel for America First Legal. “The American people deserve physicians chosen for skill and competency—not because they checked the right diversity box.”
"/1BREAKING — AFL just filed a federal complaint with DOJ calling for enforcement action against Harvard Medical School for illegal DEI discrimination," America First posted.
/1🚨BREAKING — AFL just filed a federal complaint with DOJ calling for enforcement action against Harvard Medical School for illegal DEI discrimination.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 6, 2025
Once the gold standard of higher education, Harvard is now better known for defying the law and the Constitution…🧵 pic.twitter.com/d1Yzya5y7d
The complaint claims that Harvard continues to rank identity over merit via “societal themes,” and rebranded offices, such as “Community and Campus Life,” and the “Office for Culture and Community Engagement.” The lawsuit claims that this is proxy to achieve the same racial balancing the Supreme Court struck down in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
AFL’s investigation uncovered, among other evidence of unlawful practices, the following: Harvard Medical School has embedded race- and identity-based preferences into its outreach, clerkship, and fellowship programs, reinforcing a broader admissions and training framework that prioritizes protected characteristics over merit, skill, and competency.
Harvard-affiliated residency programs publicly emphasize DEI in residency recruitment and training, according to the lawsuit.
“DEI in medicine is not a harmless fad but a direct threat to public health. When medical schools put identity politics ahead of merit, they compromise the quality of care, erode patient trust, and endanger lives, said Redshaw. “There is no room for racial engineering or social activism in the operating room.
Harvard Medical School has embedded “societal themes,” which include DEI topics designed for “longitudinal curricular integration” across all coursework and clinical rotations. After Trump banned DEI, the lawsuit says that Harvard has attempted to evade federal law by rebranding its DEI offices under euphemistic labels like “inclusive excellence,” “health equity,” “community and culture,” and “community engagement.”
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