#WorkforceWednesday: The Ripple Effect of the Supreme Court’s SFFA Ruling for Diversity in the Workplace - Employment Law This Week®
Business Better Podcast Episode: Is DEI at Risk? Considerations on the US Supreme Court Ruling Against Affirmative Action Programs
Since President Trump's return to office in January, his administration has intensified efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses, positioning the issue as a central pillar of its civil rights agenda....more
On May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum announcing the creation of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (the Initiative), which directs DOJ attorneys to utilize the...more
On May 19, 2025, the Department of Justice announced the establishment of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, created to enforce the False Claims Act (FCA) “against those who defraud the United States by taking its money while...more
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, a new enforcement strategy aimed at leveraging the False Claims Act to hold colleges, universities, government contractors, and...more
According to a memorandum issued on May 19, 2025, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) will use the False Claims Act as a tool to enforce federal civil rights laws. The new policy memo has serious potential implications for...more
Federal officials on Monday launched a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative aimed at schools receiving federal funding, the next step in the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement posture against transgender rights, DEI,...more
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, President Trump issued several Executive Orders targeting various elements of his policy agenda. Below, we discuss orders that aim to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability under Title...more
Real World Impact: In light of recent government actions directed at ensuring educational institutions protect their faculty and staff, as well as students, from antisemitism, such employers should ensure they are familiar...more
Anti-discrimination statutes protect against "deliberate indifference" to conditions establishing a hostile environment of antisemitic violence and harassment. But those statutes cannot be used to censor legitimate speech...more
A federal civil rights agency just announced that it will be investigating more than 50 higher ed institutions to determine whether they violated federal law by making race-based decisions in their graduate and scholarship...more
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (the “Department”) announced that it has initiated two sets of investigations against dozens of universities for alleged violations of Title VI....more
Many K-12 and institutes of higher education are concerned about the potential threat to their federal funding given recent changes to the way the government is interpreting existing federal law to achieve certain policy...more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) dispatched letters to 60 colleges and universities warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the...more
On Friday, February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter advising federally funded schools that it considers any decisions or benefits based on race,...more
Starting today, the U.S. Department of Education will crack down on “overt and covert racial discrimination” in educational institutions receiving federal funding, according to a February 14 “Dear Colleague” letter issued by...more
Overview of the Dear Colleague Letter On February 14, 2025, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED or the Department) issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) regarding the nondiscrimination...more
On February 14, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (DOE) issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), which calls for educational institutions to immediately cease race-conscious practices in student...more
INTRODUCTION - On February 14, 2025, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (the “Assistant Secretary”) at the United States Department of Education (the “Department”) circulated a Dear Colleague Letter (the “DCL”)...more
On February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) concerning discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in K-12 and higher education. The DCL articulates the...more
On February 14, 2025, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear Colleague Letter about legal obligations for educational institutions under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the...more
President Trump’s Executive Orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), discussed in previous client alerts with regard to higher education institutions and business more broadly, have prompted responses from...more
On Feb. 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague” Letter providing compliance guidelines to educational institutions receiving federal funding and subject to Title VI of the...more
In a tersely worded “Dear Colleague” letter dated February 14, 2025 (pdf), the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) signaled its intent to combat “pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and...more
On January 29, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order (EO) titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” escalating federal efforts to address antisemitism within institutions of higher education. A...more
On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” In a fact sheet issued on January 30, 2025, the White House stated that the Order “takes forceful and...more