#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
As the legal and regulatory landscape evolves, Title IX, Title VI, and DEI practitioners are increasingly expected to understand how their work intersects with broader federal compliance frameworks. One such framework that...more
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 January 21, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The EO raises significant new considerations for private companies and...more
A recent executive order attacks DEI accreditation standards as courts block enforcement of the Department of Education’s Dear Colleague Letter on race. On April 23, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14279 (EO)...more
Another school year is winding down, and educational leaders perhaps have never been more ready for summer break. From the Trump administration’s significant policy shifts to deeply consequential litigation playing out to...more
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is developing significant changes to how school discipline is addressed at the federal level. An executive order from President Donald Trump in late April requires the DOE to issue new...more
On April 23, 2025, the White House issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Education to investigate and hold accountable accreditors of institutions of higher education that engage in unlawful discriminatory...more
In this alert, we discuss key provisions of the orders and actions implicating the higher education sector and the lawsuits challenging them (building on our previous analysi...). We have grouped these actions based on their...more
A group of 19 Democratic AGs filed a lawsuit to block the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) from enforcing a directive conditioning federal education funding on certification that state and local education agencies will not...more
On April 24, 2025, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire largely blocked the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding for schools that refuse to drop diversity, equity, and...more
On April 23, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at overhauling the federal system of accreditation for higher education institutions. ...more
On April 24, 2025, the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Hampshire and the District of Maryland issued separate orders blocking enforcement of all, or large portions of, the Dear Colleague Letter (“DCL”) issued by...more
On April 24, 2025, Judges Landya McCafferty and Stephanie Gallagher, sitting in the United States District Courts in New Hampshire and Maryland, respectively, issued rulings blocking the U.S. Department of Education (DOE)...more
On April 24, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) efforts to enforce its interpretation of Title VI and its associated certification requirement. The...more
As public school districts continue to navigate the relationship between local policies and federal government policy initiatives, they have a new topic to consider arising out of an April 24, 2025, Executive...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
We took the week off from our Week in Review alert last week as it was a (relatively) slow week. However, as it tends to happen after a slow week, developments picked back up this week....more
The Order states that the Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful...more
On Friday, April 11, 2025, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) sent an update regarding the Title VI Certification required to be filed by districts by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 18, 2025. ODEW confirmed...more
On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) sent a letter to state education agencies (SEAs) requiring them to certify compliance with federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of...more
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has declined to sign a certification form issued by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), which asked all state education agencies to affirm compliance with federal...more
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) took another step forward last week to ensure that K-12 school districts across the country are complying with the administration’s directives on civil rights and antidiscrimination...more
On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a press release announcing the ED sent certification letters to state commissions that oversee K-12 State Education Agencies (SEAs), charging SEAs with the...more
K-12 school districts across the country now face a tight deadline to navigate a minefield with significant legal and funding implications. ...more
On April 3, 2025, the United States Department of Education (DOE) announced its intention to require state education agencies (SEAs) and school districts to certify that they are in compliance with Title VI of the 1964 Civil...more