AAUP Joins Lawsuit to Block Trump’s Unlawful and Unconstitutional DEI Orders

Yesterday afternoon, the AAUP, along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional DEI executive orders, which threaten academic freedom and access to higher education for all. The lawsuit, which can be read in full here, argues that Trump's orders exceed his legal authority, are overly vague, and fail to define such terms as “DEI,” “equity,” and “illegal DEIA."

“In the United States, there is no king,” the lawsuit states. “The President can exercise only those powers the Constitution grants to the executive, and only in ways that do not violate the rights the Constitution grants to the American people. In his crusade to erase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility from our country, President Trump cannot usurp Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, nor can he silence those who disagree with him by threatening them with the loss of federal funds and other enforcement actions.”

Without any definitive criteria or information, any of the over 130 colleges and universities in the United States with endowments over $1 billion are potentially in the crosshairs of the order. The AAUP has long advocated for diversity in higher education, including a diverse faculty and student body. The Association’s recent statement On Eliminating Discrimination and Achieving Equality in Higher Education focuses on diversity in faculty employment within an integrated understanding of how to move toward the broader goal of inclusion and equality in higher education. That statement was strongly influenced by the AAUP’s 1973 report Affirmative Action in Higher Education, which sets forth a vision of faculty diversity to enable colleges and universities “to become the institutions that they purport to be—that is, institutions that serve the public good through the excellence of their faculty and the reliability and integrity of their standards in faculty recruitment, hiring, and promotions,” as stated in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Criteria for Faculty Evaluation.

Progress toward diversity goals has resulted in better knowledge production that has started to fill in some of the gaps, expose and correct blind spots, and open entirely new vistas of inquiry that were not possible without it. The AAUP’s membership includes a large number of academic professionals whose work focuses on topics related to diversity, including faculty that teach courses focused on specific racial or ethnic identities (for example, Black studies, Latino studies, and Asian studies) as well as equity-related topics, including many who rely on federal grants to support their work. This is particularly true at medical schools, where the AAUP represents a significant number of faculty who focus on medical and other scientific research related to whether and how race and ethnicity affect health outcomes. 

“The elimination of DEI programs and initiatives at public academic institutions are a threat to the democratic purposes of higher education as a public good,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson. “The AAUP is proud to stand up and defend our campuses and communities from this vague and destructive executive order.”