By David L. Snelling

Miami – President Donald Trump’s DEI rollback for schools and colleges nationwide was dealt a blow when a federal court ruled that the policy violated a “procedural” administrative federal law.

It was a victory for dozens of colleges who were being investigated by the Trump administration for continuing to promote DEI initiatives including hiring practices, student enrollment, scholarships and other financial aid.

Harvard University, Columbia University and Duke University were embroiled in a battle with Trump who threatened to pull federal funding and fined them for violating his anti-DEI policy.

The Trump administration also launched investigations into the colleges during his DEI crackdown, saying such programs discriminated against whites and Asians.

Columbia University reached a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration to restore federal funding to the school, and after a standoff and the target of three investigations, Duke University decided to comply after the Department of Education withheld $100 million from the school.

The administration and Harvard University remain in a series of legal battles after the president froze more than $2 billion in federal funding and threatened to pull the school’s nonprofit status.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland, Trump appointee, ruled that the education department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives.

In her ruling, she said the Trump administration failed to follow administrative procedure and risked a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment when threatening federal funding cuts to education institutions that continued DEI programs.

“It initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct, causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished,” Gallagher wrote.

Attorneys for the Trump administration said it followed the proper procedures and had the right to pull funding if the schools violated the Civil Rights Act.

Since Trump enacted his DEI crackdown policy when he returned to the White House in January, enrollment and scholarships among the Black and Hispanic populations have been on the decline at multiple universities and colleges, according to a study.

For example, Amherst College in Massachusetts saw a significant drop in African American students from 11 percent to 3 percent in the class of 2028.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported a 5 percent to 13 percent decline in Black student enrollment from previous years, while Mount Holyoke College experienced a 4 percent to 3 percent decrease.

However, HBCUs have seen a surge in enrollment with 5.9 percent compared to 2024, and despite DEI scale back, a few colleges maintained or even increased Black student populations.

According to a statement, the education department said it was disappointed in Gallagher’s decision but it doesn’t stop its ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level.

The American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association filed the lawsuit in February, challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s threat to defund and fine institutions for promoting DEI initiatives.

The organizations took exception to a memo from the education department declaring that any consideration of race in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other aspects of academic and student life would be a violation of federal civil rights law.

The memo expanded the government’s interpretation of the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down affirmative action for college admissions and hiring practices.

The government argued the ruling applied not only to admissions but across all of education, forbidding “race-based preferences” of any kind.

“Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department’s Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement.

In its lawsuit, the American Federation of Teachers said the government was imposing “unclear and highly subjective” limits on schools across the country.

It said teachers and professors had to “choose between chilling their constitutionally protected speech and association or risk losing federal funds and being subject to prosecution.”