Judge Nullifies Education Department’s Diversity Guidance

Three national teacher unions challenging President Donald Trump’s nondiscrimination guidance succeeded in convincing a federal district court that the administration’s actions are unlawful and must be voided.

Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher of the US District Court for the District of Maryland granted in part the unions’ motion for summary judgment as to five of six counts in their complaint. Gallagher granted the federal government summary judgment as to the outstanding count in ruling on the Department of Justice’s cross-motion.

The unions showed that neither the “Dear Colleague Letter” issued by the Education Department nor a certification requirement—that states and school districts certify their compliance with the Department’s interpretation of Title VI and the US Supreme Court’s Harvard ruling regarding affirmative action—were issued consistently with the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, Gallagher said. They also showed “that both actions run afoul of important constitutional rights,” she added.

Therefore, both the letter and the certification requirement “must be vacated,” she said.

The unions, which include the American Federation of Teachers, the American Sociological Association, and the AFT of Maryland, along with an Oregon school district, sued the administration in February. They alleged Trump’s guidance on nondiscrimination law compliance sought to “upend” diversity in school instruction.

The unions said the Education Department’s Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter suggested that “a wide variety of core instruction, activities, and programs that schools, from pre-kindergarten through post-graduate education, use to teach and support their students now constitute illegal discrimination.”

Gallagher ruled in April that the Trump administration likely didn’t follow necessary legal procedures when it issued the guidance letter and stayed the directive, pending the resolution of the lawsuit.

The unions said in their June 5 motion for summary judgment that they met their burden to show that the letter should be permanently vacated, and the administration should be permanently enjoined from implementing similar guidance.

The administration previously argued the letter merely explained its understanding of the US Supreme Court’s holding in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., which dealt with the requirements of the equal protection clause and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Education Department also said that the letter doesn’t have “the force or effect of law and does not bind the public or create new legal standards.”

Democracy Forward Foundation represented the unions.

The case is Am. Federation of Teachers v. Dept. of Educ., D. Md., No. 25-00628, 8/14/25.