COLLIN BINKLEY
Thu, August 14, 2025
FILE - A mural by artist Tene Smith is seen near the entrance of Chicago Women in Trades, a nonprofit dedicated to training and retaining women in the skilled construction trades is photographed April 1, 2025, at the facility in Chicago. (AP Photo/Claire Savage, File)More
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation’s schools and universities.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives.
The guidance has been on hold since April when three federal judges blocked various portions of the Education Department’s anti-DEI measures.
The ruling Thursday followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government’s actions in a February lawsuit.
The case centers on two Education Department memos ordering schools and universities to end all “race-based decision-making” or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It’s part of a campaign to end practices the Trump administration frames as discrimination against white and Asian American students.
The new ruling orders the department to scrap the guidance because it runs afoul of procedural requirements, though Gallagher wrote that she took no view on whether the policies were “good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair.”
Gallagher, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, rejected the government’s argument that the memos simply served to remind schools that discrimination is illegal.
“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.
Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy firm representing the plaintiffs, called it an important victory over the administration's attack on DEI.
“Threatening teachers and sowing chaos in schools throughout America is part of the administration’s war on education, and today the people won,” said Skye Perryman, the group's president and CEO.
A statement from the Education Department on Thursday said it was disappointed in the ruling but that “judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level.”
The conflict started with a Feb. 14 memo declaring that any consideration of race in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other aspects of academic and student life would be considered a violation of federal civil rights law.
The memo dramatically expanded the government’s interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring colleges from considering race in admissions decisions. 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,” wrote Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department’s Office for Civil Rights.
A further memo in April asked state education agencies to certify they were not using “illegal DEI practices.” Violators risked losing federal money and being prosecuted under the False Claims Act, it said.
In total, the guidance amounted to a full-scale reframing of the government’s approach to civil rights in education. It took aim at policies that were created to address longstanding racial disparities, saying those practices were their own form of discrimination.
The memos drew a wave of backlash from states and education groups that called it illegal government censorship.
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.”
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Judge blocks Trump administration from withholding grants in lawsuit Nashville joined
Austin Hornbostel,
Nashville Tennessean
Thu, August 14, 2025
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of dozens of local governments and agencies, including Nashville, who in May sued several Trump administration officials and federal agencies alleging they were imposing political conditions on grant funds that had already been appropriated by Congress.
On Aug. 12, Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein issued a preliminary injunction in the case, effectively halting nearly a dozen agencies from withholding billions in federal grants if those cities didn’t implement the Trump administration’s policy agenda — including not using those funds to promote gender ideology, illegal immigration or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to the suit.
"Metro joined dozens of local governments around the country to block unconstitutional and unlawful changes in federal grants," Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz told The Tennessean. "We appreciate the court’s finding that the changes were arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law."
Dietz said the ruling, importantly, affirms the legal principle that the U.S. Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress.
In her opinion, Rothstein agrees. She writes that it’s Congress, not the president, that has the authority to make judgments about how to allocate federal funding.
“Yet that is precisely what the plaintiffs in this case allege the current administration has attempted to override,” Rothstein’s ruling reads. “They contend that the Trump administration unlawfully seeks to impose hotly contested political conditions on funds that Congress has already appropriated — substituting the executive’s preferences for the will of Congress, in clear defiance of constitutional limits.”
Several rulings in the case extend injunction to more cities, agencies
This is just the latest in a string of successful rulings for the plaintiffs in the case, in part because they’ve submitted several amended complaints adding more cities, counties and agencies to the list so they’ll receive the same injunction.
When it was first filed May 2, the suit included cities like San Francisco, Boston and New York. Nashville joined the group in a May 21 amended filing, and dozens more came on board then and in the most recent filing from July 10.
All told, the now-sizable group contends that more than $12 billion in collective funding is under threat. For Nashville that includes $289,354 in grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, designed to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness move into transitional and permanent housing, and a combined $23 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
It’s not clear from the legal filings exactly how Nashville’s grant awards wouldn’t have complied with the president’s funding conditions. But the suit does include examples from other jurisdictions — like Petaluma, California, where HUD threatened to disapprove the community’s action plan for funds because it includes references to equity, environmental justice, transgender or gender non-conforming individuals and undocumented individuals.
Each amended filing has added several more federal agencies and their appointed heads as defendants, as well. Beyond the two affecting Nashville, the list now includes agencies like the Federal Highway Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nashville, Trump admin no strangers to courtroom in 2025
This is just the latest in a string of several lawsuits against the Trump administration that include Nashville as a plaintiff.
The first foray was in late March, when Nashville signed on to a suit led by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project to halt the federal funding freeze.
About two months later, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate the grants reflected in that lawsuit, which had been appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
And in late April, Nashville joined three other local governments and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to sue Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over sweeping public health funding cuts. For Nashville, the cuts affected funding from the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity program and an Immunization and Vaccines for Children grant, first awarded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That effort, too, was successful, as U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on June 17 that the Trump administration couldn’t claw back millions in public health funding — but only from the local jurisdictions reflected in the suit, and not nationwide as the suit also requested.
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville notches win in lawsuit over Trump withholding federal grants
Thu, August 14, 2025
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of dozens of local governments and agencies, including Nashville, who in May sued several Trump administration officials and federal agencies alleging they were imposing political conditions on grant funds that had already been appropriated by Congress.
On Aug. 12, Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein issued a preliminary injunction in the case, effectively halting nearly a dozen agencies from withholding billions in federal grants if those cities didn’t implement the Trump administration’s policy agenda — including not using those funds to promote gender ideology, illegal immigration or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to the suit.
"Metro joined dozens of local governments around the country to block unconstitutional and unlawful changes in federal grants," Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz told The Tennessean. "We appreciate the court’s finding that the changes were arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law."
Dietz said the ruling, importantly, affirms the legal principle that the U.S. Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress.
In her opinion, Rothstein agrees. She writes that it’s Congress, not the president, that has the authority to make judgments about how to allocate federal funding.
“Yet that is precisely what the plaintiffs in this case allege the current administration has attempted to override,” Rothstein’s ruling reads. “They contend that the Trump administration unlawfully seeks to impose hotly contested political conditions on funds that Congress has already appropriated — substituting the executive’s preferences for the will of Congress, in clear defiance of constitutional limits.”
Several rulings in the case extend injunction to more cities, agencies
This is just the latest in a string of successful rulings for the plaintiffs in the case, in part because they’ve submitted several amended complaints adding more cities, counties and agencies to the list so they’ll receive the same injunction.
When it was first filed May 2, the suit included cities like San Francisco, Boston and New York. Nashville joined the group in a May 21 amended filing, and dozens more came on board then and in the most recent filing from July 10.
All told, the now-sizable group contends that more than $12 billion in collective funding is under threat. For Nashville that includes $289,354 in grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, designed to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness move into transitional and permanent housing, and a combined $23 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
It’s not clear from the legal filings exactly how Nashville’s grant awards wouldn’t have complied with the president’s funding conditions. But the suit does include examples from other jurisdictions — like Petaluma, California, where HUD threatened to disapprove the community’s action plan for funds because it includes references to equity, environmental justice, transgender or gender non-conforming individuals and undocumented individuals.
Each amended filing has added several more federal agencies and their appointed heads as defendants, as well. Beyond the two affecting Nashville, the list now includes agencies like the Federal Highway Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nashville, Trump admin no strangers to courtroom in 2025
This is just the latest in a string of several lawsuits against the Trump administration that include Nashville as a plaintiff.
The first foray was in late March, when Nashville signed on to a suit led by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project to halt the federal funding freeze.
About two months later, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate the grants reflected in that lawsuit, which had been appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
And in late April, Nashville joined three other local governments and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to sue Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over sweeping public health funding cuts. For Nashville, the cuts affected funding from the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity program and an Immunization and Vaccines for Children grant, first awarded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That effort, too, was successful, as U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on June 17 that the Trump administration couldn’t claw back millions in public health funding — but only from the local jurisdictions reflected in the suit, and not nationwide as the suit also requested.
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville notches win in lawsuit over Trump withholding federal grants
Dallas and Fort Worth end their diversity efforts to keep federal funding
Atirikta Kumar
Fri, August 15, 2025
The Texas Tribune
Children play at the Nancy Best Fountain at Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas on July 27. The City Council voted this week to end diversity initiatives to keep federal funding. Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune
Two of Texas’ largest cities ended their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts this week to preserve hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The Dallas and Fort Worth city councils said the shift was needed to align with the Trump administration, which has made ending such initiatives a top priority. The votes follow similar decisions by state agencies, universities and school districts across the state and country.
Other Texas cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Austin have yet to take similar action.
Dallas City Manager Kimberly Tolbert on Wednesday said she has directed all city departments to stop using policies and programs considering race, gender, ethnicity, religion or national origin while allocating funds or benefits.
“Compliance ensures that we are accountable, transparent and eligible for the resources that we know our community deserves,” Tolbert said.
The Dallas City Council in June authorized Tolbert to review and evaluate city programs to be in compliance with the federal directives and pause any initiatives that do not comply with regulations.
It is unclear how the changes would affect Dallas’s office of equity and inclusion. The office was created in 2018 to create access and opportunities for underserved members of the community. Dallas officials did not respond to interview requests.
The Dallas Morning News reported the city received about $305 million annually from the federal government in grants.
The vote in Fort Worth followed five hours of emotionally charged public comment, according to the Fort Worth Report. The council voted 7-4, with all three Black council members — Mia Hall, Chris Nettles and Deborah Peoples — voting no. Elizabeth Beck who is white also voted against the elimination of the programs.
Fort Worth City Manager Jay Chapa said the city would need to increase its property tax rate by about four cents per $100 to account for lost revenue.
Immediately after voting to suspend their DEI initiatives, the Fort Worth council voted to create a small business development program to help mitigate any adverse effects from removing specific economic incentives for minority and women-owned businesses.
Austin officials said they were aware of the change in federal policy and believe the city is in compliance with all rules and laws.
“The City of Austin’s law department is evaluating all related city programs and, as of today, we are in compliance with federal requirements,” said T.C. Broadnax, the city manager. “Federal funding is critical in our efforts to provide programs that support Austinites and keep our city healthy, resilient, and thriving.”
San Antonio's city manager echoed Broadnax.
“The City of San Antonio continues to evaluate all relevant programs to ensure compliance with federal requirements," Erik Walsh said in a statement.
Some cities elsewhere have pushed back against the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Baltimore, along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, filed a lawsuit against the administration’s directive ordering cities to eliminate DEI initiatives or lose federal funding.
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Trump cut its grant, but Wake County will still offer therapy in every school
T. Keung Hui
Fri, August 15, 2025
Flier for Daybreak Health, which plans to offer teletherapy in all Wake County schools by the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Wake County plans to offer mental health services such as therapy in all 200 schools by the end of the school year, despite losing a $14.1 million federal grant.
In April, the Trump administration canceled $1 billion in federal school mental health grants — including $14.1 million for the Wake County school system — on the grounds they promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. Wake says it’s found an alternative way to expand its school-based mental health program and wants families to know they can get therapy for their children this school year.
“For some students, their biggest barrier to learning isn’t their academic skill set,” said Megan Pohl, a Wake County school social worker assigned to Salem Middle School in Apex. “A lot of it is just emotional and mental things that they are going through at the time. And so having school based mental health in our schools really helps break down that barrier and helps give students the skills to be academically successful.”
The goal is to provide both in-person and virtual therapy options this school year for students at every Wake school, according to Brittani Bass, the district’s coordinator of the school-based mental health program.
Students only can get therapy if their parents consent.
Youth mental health crisis
Wake launched the school-based mental health program in the 2021-22 school year amid reports nationally of a youth mental health crisis coming out of the pandemic.
Statewide results from the 2023 North Carolina Youth Behavior Risk Survey showed alarming figures:
39% of high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless.
18% of high school students seriously considered suicide.
10% of high school students attempted suicide in the past 12 months.
In October, the Wake County school system announced it had received a $14.1 million mental health grant over five years. Wake planned to use the money to hire 27 people, including 20 therapists.
But after the grant was canceled, Wake has had to rely on contracting with community service providers. Wake is partnering with 10 providers this school year to offer both in-person therapy and teletherapy at schools.
“I’m thankful we have strong community partners that are willing to support us,” Bass said in an interview Thursday. “While the grant didn’t go as we had planned, we are still meeting the needs of our students.”
Daybreak Health handles most of Wake’s teletherapy services and accepts Medicaid and private insurance.
The nine oter providers will mainly offer in-person therapy. Depending on the provider, they accept insurance and may take Medicaid.
Program helping students at Salem Middle School
The program served 286 Wake students last school year, including seven at Salem Middle. The program has improved attendance, social skills and classroom engagement for the students receiving therapy, according to Pohl.
“That is their chance to let it all go with a trusted, licensed professional,” Pohl said. “So you might have a student that has never been able to just get everything off their chest, if you will. Like, we bottle things up all the time because we don’t know who we can trust and not trust with our things.”
The program is invaluable, according to Pohl, because counselors and social workers have only so much time to see students. Students who are referred for therapy get a weekly 50-minute session with a provider.
“For a school counselor to be able to dedicate 50 minutes a week on one student is a lot,” Pohl said. “We have over 1,000 students in this building. So it’s just an amazing support system that we have for students that just need a little bit of extra support.”
Therapy helping to ‘save a life’
Daybreak offers family teletherapy to elementary school students and one-on-one teletherapy for students ages 10 and over.
Depression and anxiety are the major reasons that students are referred to Daybreak. Within six weeks, 81% of the students see a reduction in their symptoms, according to Brittany Whidbee, community outreach liaison for Daybreak Health.
During a school board committee meeting earlier this week, Whidbee presented the testimonial of a student who said Daybreak had saved their life on several occasions.
“Maybe seeing a clinician during that moment prevented them from any harm they could have done to themselves, maybe someone else,” Whidbee said in an interview Thursday. “I wouldn’t just say that’s specific to Daybreak. I think any program, any therapy program, you know, can save a life.”
Wake wants more high school students getting therapy
Wake is hoping in particular to get more high school students in the program this school year. School officials were surprised how few high school students were referred last school year.
To get the message out, fliers and signs will be hung in high school restrooms, including on mirrors and in bathroom stalls with information about Daybreak.
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