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Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court allows Trump to terminate teacher training grants as part of anti-DEI policy
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to terminate Education Department grants for teacher training that officials deemed to violate their new policy opposing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The 5-4 decision blocks a Massachusetts-based judge's ruling that said the administration had failed to follow the correct legal process in terminating the grants. About $65 million in grant payments are outstanding. The decision is the first win for President Donald Trump at the Supreme Court in his second term. Five of the court's conservatives were in the majority, while Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberals in dissent. The unsigned decision said that the district court judge did not have authority to order that the funds be paid under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. The administration "compellingly argues" that the entities receiving the funds will not suffer irreparable harm as a result of the funds being withheld, the decision said. In a dissenting opinion, liberal Justice Elena Kagan disputed that conclusion, saying that the grant recipients had said they would be forced to cancel some of their programs. "Nowhere in its papers does the government defend the legality of canceling the education grants at issue here," she added. "It is beyond puzzling that a majority of justices conceive of the government's application as an emergency," liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a separate opinion. Follow live politics coverage here The 104 grants at issue had been awarded under two different programs, the Teacher Quality Partnership and another called Supporting Effective Educator Development. The Department of Education in February found that the grants violated Trump's executive order that the administration eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs that are traditionally aimed in part at ensuring that people from historically marginalized groups can obtain equal opportunities to advance their careers. Administration officials said the funded programs 'promote or take part in DEI initiatives or other initiatives that unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or another protected characteristic.' In court papers, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said many of the programs contained 'objectionable DEI material.' A lawsuit was filed in March by eight states including California, Massachusetts and New York — on behalf of entities that receive the grants, such as universities and nonprofits — saying the decision to rescind the awards violated a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration's move, saying officials had failed to properly explain their reasoning. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block Joun's ruling, noting that the Education Department had sent the same boilerplate letter to all of the grant awardees announcing the termination of funding. The letters contained no specific information on why any particular program was deemed to be in violation of the anti-DEI policy, the appeals court said. The case only involves grants issued to entities in the states that sued. In total, the Department of Education canceled about $600 million in grants for teacher training. Trump last month signed an executive order that seeks to dismantle the Education Department. Completely eliminating the department, however, would require congressional approval. In two prior emergency applications filed by the Trump administration, the Supreme Court did not grant its requests. In one, the court rejected the administration's bid to avoid immediately paying contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development whose funding was cut. In the other, the court sidestepped a decision on whether Trump could fire a federal government watchdog, although as a result of a lower court decision, the administration ultimately prevailed. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US supreme court allows Trump administration to freeze teacher-training grants
The US supreme court is letting the Trump administration temporarily freeze $65m in teacher-training grants that would promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a 5-4 decision. The decision came down on Friday afternoon, with five of the court's conservatives – Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh – in the majority. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson all dissented. In the unsigned opinion, the court said that the states made it clear 'that they have the financial wherewithal to keep their programs running', but the Trump administration had a strong case that it would not be able to reclaim any of the funds spent while the lower court's order remained in place. The cuts to more than 100 programs had been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston, who found that they were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage. The federal appeals court in Boston turned away an appeal from the administration to allow them to emergency appeal is among several the high court is considering in which the justice department argues that lower-court judges have improperly obstructed Donald Trump's order was the first time in three attempts that the nation's highest court gave the administration what it wanted on an emergency district judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order sought by eight Democratic-led states that argued the cuts were probably driven by efforts from Trump's administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion Republican president also has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the education department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as 'woke' and two programs at issue – the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development – provide more than $600m in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas such as math, science and special education, the states have argued. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five Joun's finding that the programs already were being affected, the high court's conservative majority wrote that the states can keep the programs running with their own money for now. By contrast, the majority said in an unsigned opinion, the federal government probably wouldn't be able to recover the cash if it ultimately wins the lawsuit. Kagan wrote in dissent that there was no reason for the court's emergency intervention.'Nowhere in its papers does the Government defend the legality of canceling the education grants at issue here,' Kagan a separate opinion, Brown Jackson wrote: 'It is beyond puzzling that a majority of Justices conceive of the government's application as an emergency.' The administration halted the programs without notice in February. Joun, an appointee of Democratic president Joe Biden, found that the cancellations probably violated a federal law that requires a clear appellate panel that rejected the administration's request for a stay also was made up of judges appointed by Democrats. California is leading the ongoing lawsuit, joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin. Boston public schools have already had to fire several full-time employees due to the loss of grant funding, and the College of New Jersey has also canceled the rest of its teacher-residency program. California State University has ended support for two dozen students in a similar program, and eliminated financial assistance for 50 incoming students.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court allows Trump to freeze dozens of teacher training grants
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump to temporarily freeze millions of dollars in grants to states for addressing teacher shortages, the administration's first win at the high court since reclaiming power in January. The decision was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberals dissenting. Trump attempted to cancel the grants based on allegations that the money was being used for programs that take part in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives – a favorite, if ill-defined, target for the administration. In cancelling 104 of 109 grants, the administration sent a form letter than did not provide specifics about which DEI programs, specifically, it believed the awardees were engaged in. The two grant programs, Supporting Effective Educator Development and Teacher Quality Partnership, are used to recruit and train teachers to work in traditionally underserved communities. Eight blue states that rely on the funding – including California, Illinois and New York – sued and a federal judge in Boston issued an order temporarily blocking the administration from freezing the funding while he considered the case. An appeals court declined to overturn that order and the administration appealed to the Supreme Court on its emergency docket last week. The administration focused its appeal on an argument it has been sounding for weeks to the public as well as for the justices: That a single district court judge shouldn't be able to dictate national policy – even in the short term. Previous presidents have made similar arguments when faced with adverse rulings, though the Trump administration has been doing so in case after case rapidly filed at the Supreme Court. 'This case exemplifies a flood of recent suits that raise the question: 'Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever)' millions in taxpayer dollars?' acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, the administration's top appellate attorney, told the Supreme Court in the government's appeal. The states argued in their own briefing that the district court is considering the case on expedited basis and would likely issue a new order. The justices are considered several emergency appeals from the second Trump administration touching on similar themes. Three of those appeals deal with the president's efforts to end birthright citizenship and the administration is specifically asking the court to limit the scope of nationwide injunction that bars it from doing so. Another deals with the president's attempt to invoke a wartime authority, the Alien Enemies Act, to rapidly deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. And the court has already resolved two emergency appeals from the Trump administration. In one, the court allowed the head of an independent agency that investigates whistleblower claims to remain on the job temporarily while his case continued. A lower court ultimately ruled that Hampton Dellinger could be removed and he declined to appeal. In another case, the court denied the Trump administration's effort to fight a judge-imposed deadline to spend billions of dollars in foreign aid. Litigation in that case is ongoing. This story has been updated with additional development.
Chicago Tribune
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to cut teacher-training money, for now
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration's plea to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher-training money as part of its anti-DEI efforts, while a lawsuit continues. The justices split 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent. The cuts had been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston, who found that they were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage. The federal appeals court in Boston turned away an appeal from the administration to allow them to resume. The emergency appeal is among several the high court is considering in which the Justice Department argues that lower-court judges have improperly obstructed President Donald Trump's agenda. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order sought by eight Democratic-led states that argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from Trump's administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The Republican president also has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as 'woke' and wasteful. The two programs at issue — the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development — provide more than $600 million in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas such as math, science and special education, the states have argued. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five years. The majority found that the states can keep the programs running with their own money for now, but the federal government likely wouldn't be able to recover the cash if they ultimately win the lawsuit. The administration halted the programs without notice in February. Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, found that the cancellations probably violated a federal law that requires a clear explanation. The appellate panel that rejected the administration's request for a stay also was made up of judges appointed by Democrats. California is leading the ongoing lawsuit, joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.
Boston Globe
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to cut teacher-training money, for now
The emergency appeal is among several the high court is considering in which the Justice Department argues that lower-court judges have improperly obstructed President Donald Trump's agenda. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order sought by eight Democratic-led states that argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from Trump's administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Republican president also has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as 'woke' and wasteful. Advertisement The two programs at issue — the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development — provide more than $600 million in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas such as math, science and special education, the states have argued. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five years. Advertisement The majority found that the states can keep the programs running with their own money for now, but the federal government likely wouldn't be able to recover the cash if they ultimately win the lawsuit. The administration halted the programs without notice in February. Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, found that the cancellations probably violated a federal law that requires a clear explanation. The appellate panel that rejected the administration's request for a stay also was made up of judges appointed by Democrats. California is leading the ongoing lawsuit, joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.
