Latest news with #DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices'OfficeforCivilRights
News18
01-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
Trump Govt Accuses Harvard Of Civil Rights Violations Against Jewish Students, Escalates Crackdown
The decision marks a significant escalation in the administration's ongoing battle with Harvard, which has already seen $2.5 billion in federal grant funding frozen. The Trump administration on Monday accused Harvard University of violating federal civil rights laws by failing to address the harassment of Jewish and Israeli students adequately. The findings come after a federal investigation concluded that the university showed 'deliberate indifference" toward reported cases of antisemitic discrimination on campus. However, critics, including faculty members and civil rights groups, argue the move is part of a broader effort by the administration to exert control over higher education institutions. The decision marks a significant escalation in the administration's ongoing battle with Harvard, which has already seen $2.5 billion in federal grant funding frozen. University leaders have warned that such actions pose a serious threat to academic freedom, free speech, and vital scientific research. In its findings, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) accused Harvard of failing to take timely or effective action to address a series of antisemitic harassment incidents. A letter sent to Harvard President Alan Garber warned that unless the university immediately implements corrective measures, it risks losing all federal financial assistance. 'Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources," the administration stated in the letter, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In response, Harvard issued a statement pushing back strongly against the government's conclusions, asserting that the university has taken 'substantive, proactive steps" to combat antisemitism. This includes reforming disciplinary procedures and expanding campus training to address antisemitic incidents. 'Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government's findings," the university said. Monday's development is the latest in what has become an expansive and aggressive campaign by the Trump administration against elite universities. The administration has moved not only to freeze funding but also to block Harvard from enrolling international students and has threatened its tax-exempt status. The university has filed legal challenges against these measures. The crackdown extends beyond Harvard. Earlier this year, the administration terminated $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing the school's alleged failure to protect Jewish students amid campus protests related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, despite some of those protests being organised by Jewish students themselves. Critics argue that these punitive actions violate constitutional protections of free speech and due process. In the wake of the Columbia controversy, the university entered negotiations with the administration over demands to tighten protest rules. The dispute culminated in the resignation of Columbia's interim president, Katrina Armstrong. In May, the administration determined that Columbia had violated federal civil rights laws, similar to the conclusion reached regarding Harvard. The administration has expanded this campaign to other institutions. On Friday, the University of Virginia's president, James Ryan, resigned following pressure over the university's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. And last week, federal officials opened an investigation into the University of California system, which enrols nearly 300,000 students, focusing on whether its hiring practices violate anti-discrimination laws. (With inputs from Reuters) First Published: July 01, 2025, 07:20 IST
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine Attorney General's Office pushed back on Title IX investigations, emails show
Entrance of the Maine Attorney General's office in the Cross Office Building in Augusta. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) Last month, after receiving notice that Maine was in violation of federal law for allowing transgender girls to play on girls' sports teams, the Maine Attorney General's Office pushed back on federal findings, questioning both the process and the conclusion of the investigation. But according to records obtained through a Freedom of Access Act request, the office also pointed federal officials to two proposed bills — LD 233 and LD 868 — that would ban trans athletes. Whether these bills will alter the course of the investigation is unknown, but one thing is clear: the federal government is now paying attention to these proposals. 'We have reviewed the proposed legislation at LD 233 and LD 868 that your team sent on Wednesday,' wrote Daniel Shieh, Associate Deputy Director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights in an email on March 17. 'We are not prepared to stay the investigation at this time, but please let us know if those bills become law in Maine.' The two bills are among several proposals introduced this session by Republican lawmakers aimed at restricting transgender students' participation in school sports. Neither has had a public hearing yet. LD 233, sponsored by Rep. Katrina Smith of Palermo, would require student-athletes to participate in sports based on their 'biological sex' and would prohibit transgender girls from joining girls' teams in public schools. LD 868, introduced by Rep. David Haggan of Hampden, is similar in scope, reinforcing gender-based athletic categories and citing competitive fairness and safety. Republican lawmakers have urged Maine to comply with federal directives and walk back support of trans students' rights to athletics, locker rooms and bathrooms. 'This is not sustainable,' said Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) in a press conference on April 1. 'We're a poor state. We are heavily reliant on federal money. The governor needs to move on this.' In February, after an investigation that took a handful of days and concluded without any interviews, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights determined that Maine had violated Title IX, the federal law banning sex-based discrimination, and infringed upon the rights of cisgender girls by allowing trans girls to participate in girls sports. It held the Maine Department of Education for the violations, demanding the state change its policies. HHS claimed that the state department of education, by way of its relationship to the Maine Principal's Association and its receipt of federal funds, had violated Title IX. But the Attorney General's Office rejected the claim, arguing in a letter sent on March 4 that the federal government had overstepped its authority and mischaracterized the facts. In the letter, Assistant Attorney Generals Sarah Forster and Kimberly Patwardhan wrote that the February 21 notice from HHS 'did not specify how OCR planned to conduct its compliance review,' or explain what legal framework it would be based on, nor did it include attempts to discuss findings with the department or attorney general's office, or to reach a cooperative agreement 'No one from OCR contacted MDOE or the Maine OAG for further information or to discuss cooperation or compliance,' the letter stated, calling the entire process 'accelerated' and legally questionable. The letter also rejected the federal government's core argument — that the state department of education is responsible for policies governing high school athletics, which is overseen by the Maine Principal's Association. The attorneys stressed that the organization is a private, nonprofit corporation, not a state agency, and is neither created nor operated by the department. 'MDOE does not agree that it is in violation of Title IX, nor does it agree that OCR has laid out a sufficient factual or legal basis for such a determination,' Forster and Patwardhan wrote. Further undermining the federal claims, the letter pointed out factual inaccuracies in HHS's findings. One of the core justifications for the compliance review was that MDOE allegedly received more than $500,000 in federal assistance from the Administration for Community Living in 2024. However, that funding had already been transferred to the University of Maine at Augusta with approval from the federal agency in March 2024 — nearly a year before the review. 'There is a significant inaccuracy,' the attorneys wrote, attaching documentation to prove the transfer of funding. Shieh wrote back the next day with an amended compliance review notice, this time including the Principal's Association and Greely High School, where a trans athlete who competed on a girls team attends school. 'Although Maine claims 'MDOE is not responsible for interscholastic youth sports or athletic programs in Maine,' it distributes funds for staff salaries, school facilities, and transportation, which in turn support athletics and interscholastic competition,' the letter said. 'The fact that MDOE has ceded control over its activities to MPA does not limit its obligations under Title IX.' On March 12, HHS appears to have met with all three organizations based on the emails, and five days later, the agency sent the attorney general's office an amended determination, holding the department, the high school and the association in violation of Title IX, because they uphold the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects trans students by including gender identity among the list of protected classes. 'When a state law, such as Section 4601 of Maine's Human Rights Act, frustrates Congress's purpose and poses an obstacle to the accomplishment of those purposes, that state law is preempted,' the letter said. Rep. Michael Soboleski (R- Phillips) said he is introducing a bill to remove consideration of gender identity from the act, and asked Democrats and Mills to support the legislation in order to avoid the risk of losing federal funding. 'The problem is that the term gender identity and the Human Rights Act is being interpreted way too broadly by the left,' Stewart said in the press conference. 'And what it's saying is there's no boundary between men's and women's spaces.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
