#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
Your college has a strong commitment to DEI work, but you’re concerned about the Trump Administration’s Executive Order banning DEI. You’re not sure how seriously to take it, or what the early court rulings against the order...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
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
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
As the entire public and private sector adjust to the Trump Administration's attack on programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion ("DEI"), colleges and universities are in a difficult position. Like federal...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
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
Institutions of higher education (IHEs) and prospective applicants continue to grapple with the shifted landscape of admissions practices after the United States Supreme Court's Students for Fair Admissions decision...more
This is the fifth in our 2024 Year in Preview series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations in the coming year. We will be posting further installments in the series throughout the next several...more
On August 14, 2023, the Biden Administration released its first guidance on how institutions of higher education may lawfully pursue efforts to recruit and admit diverse student bodies in light of the Supreme Court’s recent...more
DCI Consulting Group (DCI) is monitoring reactions, answering questions, and releasing content related to the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling on with affirmative action in higher education. The Court's majority opinion was...more
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the affirmative action student admissions practices at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in a pair of cases brought by Students for...more
Supreme Court Blocks Use of Race in Harvard, UNC Admissions in Blow to Diversity Efforts - "In one of its most closely watched cases this year, the court ruled along ideological lines that the way the schools approached race...more