A federal judge struck down a policy implemented by the Trump administration that required the Department of Education to end millions of dollars in grants for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Boston District Judge Angel Kelley on Thursday ruled in favor of eight Democrat-led states that had continued to challenge the Education Department policy after the Supreme Court in April 2025 allowed the administration to proceed with terminating the teacher training grants.
The judge said the policy failed to provide discernible criteria for what programs would be considered as DEI initiatives and likely to lose funding. The department also failed to consider the impact of canceling the grants on those who relied upon the funding, she said.
“The Directive does not acknowledge the fact that thousands of teachers, as well as teachers in teacher-training pipelines, would be affected, upending the careers of much-needed educators,” Kelley wrote.
‘Social Justice’ Activism
The states sued after the Education Department announced in February 2025 that it would cancel more than $600 million in taxpayer-funded grants because they were being used to train teachers and education agencies on what it called “divisive ideologies.”
The administration said that training materials included “inappropriate and unnecessary topics” such as Critical Race Theory, DEI, social justice activism, “anti-racism,” and instruction on “white privilege and white supremacy.”
The department said additionally, many of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies that were “implicitly and explicitly based on race.”
The Department of Education in Washington on April 28, 2025. (Madalina Vasiliu /The Epoch Times)
Supreme Court Held Order
Led by California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, the eight states had previously persuaded a different judge, who was originally assigned their case, to order the reinstatement of the grants, but the Supreme Court put that order on hold in April 2025.
The other states involved in the lawsuit are Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin.
The K-12 teacher preparation grants had been issued through the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development grant programs.
According to Thursday’s ruling, more than 90 percent of grants awarded through those programs were withdrawn as a result of the directive to terminate grants promoting DEI.
The 109 canceled grants included 40 awarded to colleges and other institutions in the eight states.
Kelley said any lawsuits aiming to recover money lost as a result of those grant terminations would now proceed in the specialist Court of Federal Claims.
The judge said she retained the ability to decide if the original February 2025 directive that led to their termination complied with the Administrative Procedure Act. She concluded it did not and was “arbitrary and capricious.”
‘Merit-Based Country’
The ruling comes amid a broader effort by the Trump administration to remove all DEI considerations from the federal government and replace them with a merit-based approach.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January 2025, President Donald Trump said his administration had moved to abolish “all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense,” and he said that he wanted to see the United States become once again a “merit-based country.”
In a January 2025 executive order, Trump directed the federal government to end what it described as “illegal discrimination and preferences” based on race and sex. The order argued that treating people differently on the basis of race or sex was contrary to the principle of equal treatment under the law and directed agencies to identify and terminate programs that promoted such preferences.
Trump reiterated his opposition to DEI measures in his Feb. 24 State of the Union address, declaring, “We ended DEI in America.”
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
