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The American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration policy requiring K-12 schools and colleges to eliminate race-based programming and education or lose federal funding.

The nation’s second-largest teachers union was joined by its Maryland affiliate in the suit, filed in a Baltimore district court. It targets guidance from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter sent to school officials across the country.

The letter threatens to deny federal funding to any school that considers race in admissions, hirings, financial aid, scholarships, discipline policy and “all other aspects of student, academic and campus life.” 

“The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that

has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions,” the letter says. “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice or equity is illegal.”

The lawsuit argues that the order’s vague language implies that all schools should get rid of all programming related to race and is actually an attempt at rewriting civil rights law.

The letter says all educational institutions must “cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race” and stop reliance on third-party agencies that are being used to “circumvent prohibited uses of race.” Schools have until Feb. 28 to comply.

“The activities and programs that are described as unlawful include: classroom instruction

that confronts difficult and uncomfortable subjects and imparts critical thinking skills,” the lawsuit says. “Orientations and training that equip students with the communication skills and tools to navigate complex social dynamics … and support services and extracurricular activities.”

In the suit, the AFT argues that the Trump administration and the department misrepresented the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs. The letter also leans on the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard — which outlawed race in college admissions — and argues that the ruling applies more broadly.

“This Letter is an unlawful attempt by the Department to impose this administration’s particular views of how schools should operate as if it were the law,” the suit says.

Earlier this week, a different division of the Maryland district court granted a temporary restraining order in a separate lawsuit filed by the union. That one alleges that the department illegally gave Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency access to millions of private and sensitive records.

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