In the latest move against diversity, equity and inclusion in the US, an attorney has demanded that a leading law school should immediately end DEI policies, warning that his justice department office will not hire students or other affiliates associated with a university where DEI operates.

Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, in a letter sent to the dean of Georgetown law school, wrote that he was investigating the academic institution for teaching and promoting DEI.

According to the Washington Post, Martin wrote: “At this time, you should know that no applicant for our fellows program, our summer internship, or employment in our office who is a student or affiliated with a law school or university that continues to teach and utilize DEI will be considered.”

Martin put two questions to dean William Treanor, a constitutional law scholar: “First, have you eliminated all DEI from your school and its curriculum? Second, if DEI is found in your courses or teaching in any way, will you move swiftly to remove it?”

Legal commentators said the letter breached the first amendment of the US constitution on fundamental rights.

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The President Trump-led attack on DEI in the US is best known in the UK for his comments about the Federal Aviation Administration in January in the wake of the fatal air collision over Washington DC. However, since coming to power on 20 January all federal bodies have seen the dismissal of those working on DEI programmes.

And late last month the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown – America’s highest-ranking general and only the second black general to serve as chairman – was fired with immediate effect. The head of the US Navy, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service, was also fired, among other generals perceived to have been sympathetic to or having benefited from DEI schemes.

Many large US firms have rolled back, reframed or ended their DEI programmes in response to Trump’s demands.

In a statement, a Georgetown spokesperson said that the university’s practices were constitutionally protected and that the university complied with all federal and local regulation: “As a Catholic and Jesuit university, Georgetown was founded on the principle that serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical, and spiritual understanding.”

“Restricting or suppressing legally protected speech would contradict the first amendment, contravene the university’s mission, and undermine the educational experience that prepares students to navigate an increasingly complex world.”

Established in 1789 and located in the capital, Georgetown is the country’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, a private research institution with the largest law school, with over 2,000 students.

On 14 February the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, declared all race-based educational programmes and policies discriminatory and illegal. Institutions were given two weeks to comply or face investigations and, possibly, the loss of federal funding. The letter sent to colleges accused them of “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.”

Colleges initially responded by removing language about race and DEI buzzwords from the names of schemes and launching internal policy reviews. But commentators say college leaders are worried by the loss of federal funding, which could mean the closure of many institutions.

As well as scholarships and courses being cancelled, campuses designed to ferment better cultural understanding between diverse US people are being closed. However, legal challenges and confusion over interpretation of the new rules are continuing to slow the process.

In 2023 the US Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action programmes in colleges fell foul of the US constitution, with many states, primarily in the midwest, launching their own anti-DEI bills.

 

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