By COLLIN BINKLEY and JOCELYN GECKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration mentioned Friday it is not going to defend a decades-old grant program for schools with giant numbers of Hispanic college students that’s being challenged in court docket, declaring the federal government believes the funding is unconstitutional.
In a memo despatched to Congress, the Justice Division mentioned it agrees with a lawsuit trying to strike down grants which might be reserved for schools and universities the place not less than 1 / 4 of undergraduates are Hispanic. Congress created this system in 1998 after discovering Latino college students had been going to varsity and graduating at far decrease charges than white college students.
Justice Division officers argued this system gives an unconstitutional benefit primarily based on race or ethnicity.
The state of Tennessee and an anti-affirmative motion group sued the U.S. Training Division in June, asking a decide to halt the Hispanic-Serving Establishment program. Tennessee argued all of its public universities serve Hispanic college students however none meet the “arbitrary ethnic threshold” to be eligible for the grants. These colleges miss out on tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} due to discriminatory necessities, the go well with mentioned.
On Friday, the Justice Division launched a letter dated July 25 during which Solicitor Common John Sauer notified Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson that the division “has determined to not defend” this system, saying that sure facets of it are unconstitutional. The letter cited a 2023 Supreme Courtroom resolution that racial balancing is “patently unconstitutional.”
The Justice Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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