A Maryland judge has struck down orders from President Trump to stop taxpayer funding to colleges and universities that teach diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The 76-page Aug. 14 ruling said that Trump didn’t promulgate the rules according to the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law enacted in 1946 that governs federal rulemaking.
On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education published a letter describing the new administration’s position on DEI. The American Federation of Teachers sued the U.S. Department of Education in February.
The ruling said the districts had been placed in an impossible position in which they didn’t know which conduct, speech, lessons, programs, or meetings were prohibited.
The letter could have a “chilling effect of their First Amendment rights” on district employees, United States District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher wrote. School employees “fear that many activities central to their work, their missions, and their employment could jeopardize their federal funding,” the ruling said. “Losing federal funding could force District 4J to fire teachers, shorten the school year, increase class sizes, reduce course offerings, and eliminate or downsize programs for gifted and disabled students,” the ruling read.
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The Trump administration should have used the APA process for rulemaking, the judge wrote: “Plaintiffs have shown that neither challenged agency action was promulgated in accordance with the procedural requirements of the APA, and that both actions run afoul of important constitutional rights. Both challenged actions accordingly must be vacated."
The ruling said that the letter regulated speech on universities.
"The regulation of speech cannot be done casually," the judge wrote.
The Department is disappointed in the ruling but remains committed to upholding anti-discrimination protections under the law a Department of Education, a spokesperson told Townhall in an email.
“While the Department is disappointed in the judge’s ruling, judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level. The Department remains committed to its responsibility to uphold students’ anti-discrimination protections under the law.”
In January, Trump issued an executive order titled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing." It ordered government agencies to terminate, to the maximum extent allowed, all DEI and “environmental justice” offices and "equity" positions.
AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT-Maryland President Kenya Campbell welcomed the ruling.
“This is a huge win for students, families and educators and a sweeping indictment of Donald Trump’s draconian attacks on the essence of public education,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Here, the government decided to put its thumb on the scale to chill teachers’ duty to create safe and welcoming classrooms where critical thinking is valued and history is presented in an open and honest way."
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