WALL STREET JOURNAL: Trump Initiatives Knocked Back in New Round of Court Rulings
Washington, DC — This week marked significant victories nationwide as both Democracy Forward and allied organizations secured multiple judicial rulings against Trump administration policies. These legal wins demonstrate that courts remain a powerful check on executive overreach when advocates, communities, and legal experts unite with strategic precision.
A coalition of nationwide educators’ associations and a public school district, represented by Democracy Forward, secured a nationwide injunction blocking the administration’s attempt to restrict educational curriculum on race, racism, and diversity programming. The case successfully challenged a threatening “Dear Colleague Letter” from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which had imposed an April 24 compliance deadline on every school district in America.
In a parallel victory reinforcing this ruling, a second federal judge in New Hampshire issued a similar preliminary injunction against the same directive after legal action by community partners. A third ruling in the District of Columbia further blocked the administration from demanding schools certify their compliance with the Trump administration’s directives, creating a unified judicial front against the overreach.
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WALL STREET JOURNAL: Trump Initiatives Knocked Back in New Round of Court Rulings
President Trump suffered a string of defeats in federal courts on Thursday as judges ruled to curtail measures targeting immigration enforcement, voting and diversity initiatives in education.
The decisions are the latest setbacks for the administration, which has been frustrated by judges moving to block or slow the wide-reaching actions on core policy goals it has rolled out since taking office in January.
Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs also suffered setbacks in two federal courts on Thursday. Judges from New Hampshire and Maryland ruled that Trump’s effort to deny federal funding to public school districts with DEI programs likely violates the First Amendment’s protections against coerced speech.
REUTERS: US judges block Trump’s ability to withhold school funds over DEI
Federal judges in Maryland and New Hampshire on Thursday blocked Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from following through on threats to cut off funding to public schools that engage in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The dual rulings came in lawsuits by teachers unions who sued to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding to K-12 schools and universities that did not cease what it called “discriminatory” DEI initiatives.
Skye Perryman, whose liberal-leaning legal group Democracy Forward represented the plaintiffs in the Maryland case, in a statement said the ruling “affirms what we have always known: this administration’s attempts to censor schools, teachers, educators, colleges, and universities is unlawful.”
POLITICO: Trio of rulings freezes Trump’s anti-DEI directives for schools
Federal judges on Thursday dealt three separate blows to the Education Department’s plans to enforce sweeping bans on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the nation’s K-12 schools, in decisions that declare Trump administration policies — or the way they were enacted — likely violate the law.
The rulings stem from lawsuits brought by the country’s largest teacher unions and civil rights groups in separate jurisdictions. But each court decision carries national implications that temporarily block the administration from carrying out this month’s directive that school systems comply with its interpretation of federal anti-discrimination law or risk sanctions.
The American Federation of Teachers joined the American Sociological Association and an Oregon school district in its lawsuit, in conjunction with the Democracy Forward legal services organization.
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Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.