Smithsonian Latino Internship is Unconstitutional, Suit Says

The American Alliance for Equal Rights, led by conservative legal activist Edward Blum, says that a Smithsonian internship for Latino college students violates the Fifth Amendment, according to a new lawsuit.

The alliance says that the Latino Museum Studies Program Undergraduate Internship “outright requires, or at a minimum strongly prefers, interns to be Latino,” and that staff members of the Smithsonian have confirmed “that the internship discriminates against non-Latinos,” according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The group says that in the two years the internship existed, no intern has identified as Black, Asian, White, or non-Latino. The Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services is sued in his official capacity alongside the Director of the National Museum of the American Latino, also sued in his official capacity.

The complaint says the internship imposes an “illegal quota” which isn’t narrowly tailored to any permissible goal, and currently has no endpoint for its consideration of applicants’ races or ethnicities. “Assuming a South Dakotan with one Latino grandparent knows more about Latino history than an African American who grew up in Honduras” is “race essentialism” that “flouts strict scrutiny,” it says.

The complaint heavily cites the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that essentially ended the use of race in public and private university admissions. “Eliminating racial discrimination,’” the Supreme Court’s 2023 Harvard decision implores, “‘means eliminating all of it,’” the complaint says.

Founded in 2021, the alliance is a “nationwide membership organization” “dedicated to ending racial classifications and racial preferences in America,” according to the complaint. Blum is the group’s president.

Amongst the suits it has brought, the alliance recently sued the State of Alabama over an alleged “racial quota” for the state’s Real Estate Appraisers Board. It is also challenging a Texas nonprofit’s grant program for women and minorities. And it has sued an Atlanta venture fund catering to Black women in a case recently argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

One dues-paying member of the alliance who identifies as biracial but not Latino is interested in applying for the Latino Museum Studies Program Undergraduate Internship, the complaint says, but that member wishes to proceed pseudonymously, fearing reprisal from the Smithsonian and the public if her identity is known.

“Member A is ready and able to apply for the Museum’s internship program, but she cannot apply on a race-neutral playing field because she is not Latino,” the complaint says.

The complaint asserts a claim for violation of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. The group seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would bar the Smithsonian directors from selecting interns for the program, closing the application window that ends on April 1, 2024, or considering an applicant’s race or ethnicity.

The alliance also seeks a permanent injunction against knowing or considering an applicant’s race, alongside reasonable costs including attorneys’ fees.

The National Museum of the American Latino declined to comment.

Judge Jia M. Cobb is assigned to the case.

Lawfair LLC and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC represent the alliance.

The case is Am. All. for Equal Rts. v. Zamanillo, D.D.C., No. 1:24-cv-00509, complaint 2/22/24.