#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
If you haven’t read the recent press releases from the Department of Education reflecting their summer enforcement focus around Title IX, below we’ll dive into what happened this month. Penn’s agreement with the Office for...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
On April 23, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at overhauling the federal system of accreditation for higher education institutions. ...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 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
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
The long-rumored plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) took a formal step forward on March 20, 2025, when President Trump signed an Executive Order calling for the agency’s closure. While headlines suggest...more
It was another big week for the Department of Education, with President Trump signing an Executive Order on Thursday instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take actions to “close” the Department. President Trump’s...more
On March 14, 2025, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of the U.S. District Court’s preliminary injunction, which will allow the Trump administration to continue enforcing the Executive Orders (EOs) related to...more
On March 5, 2025, the National Education Association (NEA) and its New Hampshire affiliate (NEA-NH) sued the U.S. Department of Education, challenging a recently issued “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) that informed schools that...more
Despite the issuance of a sweeping national federal court injunction against President Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025 and January 21, 2025 Executive Orders that seek to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”)...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
We reported last week that the pace of executive orders coming from the new presidential administration had begun to slow. While, overall, the rate does still appear to be slowing, this week has been a notable one....more
On Monday, March 3, Linda McMahon was confirmed by the Senate to serve as President Trump’s Secretary of the Department of Education by a vote of 51 to 45. Since President Trump’s inauguration, even without a confirmed...more
Despite court ruling, educational institutions face continuing enforcement uncertainty pursuant to the February 14 “Dear Colleague Letter” issued by the Department of Education - On February 21, 2025, a federal court in...more
During the first days of President Trump's second term of office, he issued executive orders rescinding many Biden-era executive orders and addressing a wide range of initiatives and issues that were a focus of his election...more
On Jan. 21, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO), “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” Broadly speaking, the EO purported to prohibit what it characterized as unlawful...more