Teachers Union Sues Education Department Over Anti-DEI Policy

In the letter, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights within the department, condemned what he described as “overt and covert racial discrimination” in K–12 schools and universities, adding that proponents of such “discriminatory practices” have attempted to further justify them under the banner of DEI over the past four years.

In doing so, they have smuggled “racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,” Trainor wrote. He warned that schools had two weeks to stop any practice that treats people differently because of their race while vowing that the department would “vigorously enforce the law” and take “appropriate measures” to assess compliance.

The letter was sent to the departments of education in all 50 states, according to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The American Federation of Teachers is one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions while the sociological association is a group of about 9,000 college students, scholars, and teachers.

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They said the letter violates free speech protections provided under the First Amendment by forcing schools to teach only the views supported by the federal government. The letter also violates the Fifth Amendment because the directive is so vague that schools won’t know what practices cross the line, the lawsuit stated.

“The overbreadth and vagueness of the law, and the content-based restrictions it places on speech and expression, will force plaintiffs’ members to choose between chilling their constitutionally protected speech and association or risk losing federal funds and being subject to prosecution,” the complaint read.

The letter “radically upends and re-writes otherwise well-established jurisprudence,” the plaintiffs stated, pointing to Trainor’s justification for the new nondiscrimination obligations: a Supreme Court decision banning the use of race in college admissions (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard).

Department ‘Attempting to Establish New Legal Regime’

In his letter to schools, Trainor said the ruling from the nation’s highest court applies more broadly to all federally funded education. “At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” he wrote in the letter.

In their lawsuit, the union and the association argued that no federal law exists that prevents teaching about race and race-related topics and that that the Supreme Court has not banned efforts to advance DEI in education.

The lawsuit comes as the administration is facing several other suits challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at banning DEI policies and programs within the federal government.

The judge also prohibited the Trump administration from ending or modifying DEI-related federal contracts and grants.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Education for comment.

Bill Pan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.