AmeriCorps Blocked From Enforcing Trump DEI Orders for Grants

A US judge said he would continue to prevent the federal agency AmeriCorps from requiring grant recipients to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders against diversity, equity, and inclusion.

AmeriCorps can’t pause or cancel grants for social programs based on their compliance with Trump’s orders attacking DEI and gender ideology activities while the lawsuit is pending, said the preliminary injunction order issued Wednesday by Judge Edward M. Chen of the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, said the San Francisco Unified School District and the city of Santa Fe, N.M., which said AmeriCorps’ compliance directions are unconstitutional and illegal, are likely to succeed on claims they asserted in their March lawsuit. Other factors also weigh in their favor, he said.

“At bottom, AmeriCorps offers no substantive reasons justifying its radical change of course other than its rote recitation of the need to implement the Executive Orders,” Chen wrote.

The ruling follows and replaces a temporary restraining order the judge issued in March that barred the federal government from taking the same actions. The judge, at a hearing last month, pressed government attorneys to defend its directive.

The school district is represented by the San Francisco city attorney’s office and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. Santa Fe is represented by its city attorney and by Public Rights Project. AmeriCorps is represented by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

The case is San Francisco Unified School District v. AmeriCorps, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-02425, 6/18/25.