The Trump administration did not offer an explanation as to why it had changed its position, but instead cited the result of a similar legal challenge heard in Maryland. In that case, the Justice Department agreed to refrain from enforcing the ban.
The Trump administration has agreed to drop its proposed nationwide ban on diversity and equity initiatives.
According to NHPR, New Hampshire’s largest teachers union—along with four public school districts and several civil rights groups—filed a lawsuit against the ban last year. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the administration’s blanket-ban on DEI-type programs likely violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In April, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty issued a temporary injunction against the ban as the case continued to be litigated. Earlier this month, though, the plaintiffs agreed to drop their lawsuit after the Trump administration told the court that it will no longer withhold federal money from schools with DEI programs.
“That’s why cases like these are so important, so critical to force the government to prove and demonstrate the necessity for why they’re doing what they’re doing,” said Gilles Bissonnette, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “And here they certainly couldn’t do that.”
The Trump administration did not offer an explanation as to why it had changed its position, but instead cited the result of a similar legal challenge heard in Maryland. In that case, the Justice Department agreed to refrain from enforcing the ban.
“This ruling ensures that educators can engage in scholarship and teach history, literature, and other subjects where race, gender, and the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion appear, without fear of arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement,” said Sarah Hinger, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program. “It affirms that educators must be free to teach and that students have a right to a full and honest education that reflects the diversity of their communities and prepares them to participate in democracy.”
In a separate statement, the National Education Association of New Hampshire—the teachers union and a lead plaintiff in the case—thanked the individual educators who’d joined the lawsuit.
“Their actions and the rulings from courts on this issue reaffirm that every student deserves the opportunity to learn in a school where they are valued, seen, and supported for who they are, not erased by political agendas,” NEA-New Hampshire President Megan Tuttle said. “And their leadership sends a clear message that educators, not politicians, belong at the center of decisions about teaching and learning.”
Sources
Department of Education Backs Down on Unlawful Directive Targeting Educational Equity
NH lawsuit ends Trump administration’s DEI ban in schools nationwide
NH lawsuit ends Trump administration’s DEI ban in schools nationwide
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