Five Scholarships Excluding Whites At Minnesota State U Moorhead Challenged By Equal Protection Project

Five Scholarships Excluding Whites At Minnesota State U Moorhead Challenged By Equal Protection Project

The Equal Protection Project (EPP) (EqualProtect.org) of the Legal Insurrection Foundation has challenged numerous racially discriminatory programs done in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This discrimination comes in various ways, but the overarching theme is to exclude or diminish some people and promote others, based on race, color, or ethnicity. We have filed over two dozen complaints and legal actions in the year since launch in February 2023, with over half the schools withdrawing or modifying the discriminatory programs.

Almost all of our actions have addressed discrimination in higher education. In our latest action, we have filed a Civil Rights Complaint (full embed at bottom of post) with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, against Minnesota State University Moorehead (MSUM) over five racially and ethnically discriminatory scholarships.

From the Complaint:

We bring this civil rights complaint against the Minnesota State University Moorhead (“MSUM”), a public institution, for offering, administering and promoting five discriminatory scholarships that restrict eligibility to students based on race, color and national origin. The number and scope of these discriminatory programs reflects a systemic discrimination problem at MSUM, and we urge OCR to prioritize its review and promptly open an investigation and take action.

These scholarships violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations.2 And, because MSUM is a public institution, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

All of these scholarships are being offered during the 2024-25 academic year, although the application period closed on February 1, 2024.3

We go on to list the five scholarships (website screenshots omitted):

1. The Access, Opportunity & Success Scholars Diversity Scholarship

This scholarship is available to new freshman or new transfer students who are “from an underrepresented or underserved population,” which, according to MSUM, means that they “identify as African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic/Latino.”4

2. The Earl, Violette and Louise Warner Diversity Scholarship

This Earl, Violette and Louise Warner Diversity Scholarship is exclusively awarded “to students who are of Mexican-American descent,” with preference given to students who were either migrant sugarbeet workers or who are “descendents” [sic] of a migrant sugarbeet worker.5

3. The Joseph Thorman Hispanic Scholarship

This Joseph Thorman Hispanic Scholarship is awarded only to “full-time, Hispanic students from South Texas.”6

4. The MSUM Diversity Scholarship

The MSUM Diversity Scholarship is available “to students from an underrepresented or underserved population who identify as African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and/or Hispanic/Latino and are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.”7

5. The ODI Diversity Scholarship

To be eligible for the ODI Diversity Scholarship, applicants must be “full-time students from an underrepresented or underserved population who identify as African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and/or Hispanic/Latino and are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.”8

As we do in all our complaints, we then detail why these scholarships are unlawful under existing case law, concluding:

Because MSUM’s racial and/or ethnicity-based requirements for these scholarships is presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, its use of such criteria violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

The filing has garnered substantial local media coverage in the Minnesota and North Dakota media markets.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which is syndicated throughout the region, covered it, focusing on how active EPP has been in this area:

A conservative nonprofit behind dozens of civil rights complaints against race-based education policies around the country is now zeroing in on at Minnesota State University Moorhead, alleging that five of the university’s scholarships are discriminatory.

The Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation on Tuesday filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Chicago, asking that it investigate Minnesota State University Moorhead and “impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for that unlawful conduct.”

The Rhode Island-based nonprofit was emboldened by last year’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned using race as a factor in college admissions and cited the high court’s decision in its complaint.

William Jacobson, a Cornell University clinical law professor who leads the nonprofit, wrote in his complaint that five scholarships offered by Minnesota State Moorhead “restrict eligibility to students based on race, color and national origin.” That’s in violation, he said, of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

To date, Jacobson’s organization has filed more than 25 similar complaints with the Department of Education. He said in a statement Tuesday that more than half of the complaints have been resolved by the universities without the need for action from the government. A formal investigation has been opened into one complaint regarding the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he said.

“The eligibility requirements for these scholarships are openly racially discriminatory. Regardless of the purpose of the discrimination, it is wrong and unlawful,” Jacobson said in a statement.

InForum, affiliated with a local TV station, also covered it and local TV did a short segment including an interview of me. One of the benefits of this media exposure, particularly on TV, is that I get to explain the law to tens of thousands, sometimes millions of people, and to advocate for color-neutral treatment. It’s almost always the case that the reporters themselves don’t understand it.

I also appeared on WDAY Radio with Chris Larson, where we delved deeper into the topic:

William Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, says the complaint surrounds certain scholarships awarded by the school.

“Broadly speaking, it’s a civil rights complaint filed with the Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Education, asserting that there are five scholarships documented on the website of the university that have racially discriminatory eligibility criteria for them,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “And that those discriminatory eligibility criteria violate not only the equal protection clause of the US Constitution 14th Amendment, because this is a public university, they also violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which the university is obligated to follow because it receives federal funding.”

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Jacobson said the scholarships “do not meet strict scrutiny,” saying they are not ‘narrowly tailored.’

“So, if you’re going to meet strict scrutiny you’re going to have to find out not only a compelling state interest, but that you have narrowly tailored this to achieve that,” he said. “Typically in the past, in the early days of affirmative action, that this would be, could be considered remedial affirmative action that you have a particular company or a particular industry which has engaged in discrimination and now is trying to remedy it.”

Jacobson said that the Project’s hope is that “the university recognizes they have no legal ground to stand on, that what they’re doing is wrong and they change the programs.”

“In more than half of the cases that we’ve had in that regard, the school changes,” he said. “The program either stops the program or changes the eligibility criteria.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, Minnesota State University Moorhead Director of Communications Kristi Monson said, “At Minnesota State University Moorhead, we are committed to transforming the world by transforming lives, and ensuring all our students, no matter who they are, can achieve their educational goals. We will cooperate fully with the Office of Civil Rights if they choose to investigate this matter.”

Jacobson said he’s not satisfied with the statement.

“It does not seem like a direct response to our complaint. They do not address the issues we’ve raised. They state aspirational goals, and frankly, we’re in favor of those aspirational goals. We’re in favor of the university being available to everybody and allowing students to reach their full potential no matter who they are or where they’re from. We’re all in favor of that,” he said. “The problem is they’re doing it through racial discrimination, and that’s what we have an objection to.”

EPP is in a major expansion mode, and we expect to broaden our challenges to racially discriminatory programs.  But we need your help. We are a small organization going up against powerful and wealthy government and private institutions devoted to DEI discrimination. Donations are greatly needed and appreciated.

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