President Donald Trump’s effort to defund public schools with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs faced a significant legal setback Thursday as three federal judges, including two Trump appointees, ruled against the Education Department’s controversial enforcement policy.
At the center of the litigation is a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon warning states and school districts that failure to eliminate race-based DEI programs could result in the loss of Title I funds, which support low-income students. Beginning this month, schools receiving federal dollars would be required to certify compliance or risk losing funding.
But U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty, an Obama appointee in New Hampshire, issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the National Education Association and other plaintiffs, calling the administration’s DEI policy “textbook viewpoint discrimination” and likely a violation of the First Amendment.
“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson’s Choice,” McCafferty wrote in her 82-page opinion. “They must either teach curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risk their professional standing by defying the directive. The Constitution requires more.”
McCafferty also said the department’s vague language failed to define what constitutes a DEI program, concluding the policy likely violated procedural requirements under the Administrative Procedures Act.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, agreed that the policy was unconstitutionally vague, blocking the department from enforcing a certification requirement attached to the DEI guidance. Friedrich found that the letter “fails to … delineate between a lawful DEI practice and an unlawful one,” rendering compliance reviews unclear.
Although Friedrich declined to block the broader Dear Colleague letter itself, she noted that further judicial scrutiny was warranted. A full written order is expected soon.
A third ruling came from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Baltimore, also a Trump appointee, who found the Education Department’s implementation of the policy violated federal rulemaking procedures. She issued a nationwide injunction halting portions of the guidance.
“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish,” Gallagher wrote. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”
The rulings follow a temporary agreement between the Trump administration and challengers in the New Hampshire case to pause enforcement of the letter, which expired Thursday.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the NEA called the ruling “a win for educators and students across the country.”
Trump, now in his second term, has made dismantling DEI programs a top priority.
STATES DEFYING TRUMP ANTI-DEI DEADLINE RISK LOSING EDUCATION FEDERAL FUNDING
His administration has already pulled billions of dollars in federal contracts from noncompliant universities, revoked student visas tied to DEI activism, and threatened accreditation for schools promoting what it calls “repugnant race-based preferences.”
The administration is expected to appeal the rulings.
