Discriminatory American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and Yale Medical Joint Program Challenge By Equal Protection Project

Discriminatory American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and Yale Medical Joint Program Challenge By Equal Protection Project

The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) recently reached a milestone — our 100th school, college, or university challenged over DEI discrimination, covering over 400 discriminatory programs and scholarships. So far 2025 has been our busiest and most productive year since launch in February 2023 – we are expanding legal staff and moving both vertically and horizontally in the legal challenges we bring.

Most of our civil rights complaints have been filed at the Department of Education. One goal for 2025 is to expand our horizon into filing civil rights complaints at other agencies which provide federal funding. We recently filed a Civil Rights Complaint against against the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) and Yale School of Medicine at the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), our first filing in that forum.

From the Complaint (images omitted):

We bring this civil rights complaint against the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (“AAAP”) and Yale School of Medicine (“Yale”) for their administration and promotion of the Reach Minority Fellowship (“REACH”), pursuant to an HHS grant, which discriminates based on race, color, and/or national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”).2

THE REACH PROGRAM

AAAP, in partnership with Yale, offers REACH—a one-year training program for minority healthcare professional students focused on improving care for racially and ethnically underrepresented minorities (URMs) with substance use disorders, AAAP received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund this fellowship. Although the grant is titled the “Minority Fellowship Program” and emphasizes “outreach to URM medical students and residents,” its terms do not mandate race-based selection criteria. Instead, the stated purpose is to “serve racial and ethnic minority populations,” and participation is not limited by race.

While the grant language references an “intensive recruitment strategy” focused on underrepresented medical students and residents and institutions “with missions oriented toward the underserved,” these descriptions relate to outreach efforts—not eligibility restrictions. The goal is to build a workforce of culturally informed physicians with expertise in addiction medicine, which the grant says will “improve outcomes for minority populations.” In short, the program is framed around serving specific communities, but it does not require exclusion of individuals based on race or ethnicity.”3

REACH Program Benefits

Fellows receive up to $104,000 in funding for their fellowship position, along with travel, accommodations, and per diem to attend the in-person Welcome Workshop.4 They are also provided with additional support to attend one addiction conference—$1,500 for Trainee Scholars and $1,200 for Fellow Scholars. Each fellow is matched with a professional mentor for quarterly remote meetings focused on career development, as well as a local mentor at their home institution for project-related guidance. Throughout the year, fellows complete a scholarly project with oversight and support from the REACH Advisory Board.

REACH Program Eligibility Requirements

AAAP and Yale have imposed a race, color, and national origin requirements on applicants. “[A]pplicants must be…from [a] racial/ethnic minoritized population (i.e., Black, African, or African American, non-Caucasian Hispanic or Latinx, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander).”5

Yale Participation

Yale University contributes to the REACH program through a mandatory one-week Intensive Course for all scholars.6 This training focuses on structural factors that drive health disparities in addiction and co-occurring mental disorders, and how to address them. “Working with Yale University, the REACH program provides training in culturally-informed care in the area of behavioral health and medicine.”

Yale was chosen to lead this effort through its Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine fellowship programs.7 According to the REACH website, “Yale was chosen to work with AAAP to lead this effort, specifically the Addiction Psychiatry (ADP) and Addiction Medicine (ADM) fellowship programs at Yale School of Medicine, as they offer a diverse network of physicians, psychologists, and advanced health professionals with expertise in providing culturally-informed care….”

As we do in all our civil rights complaints, we then lay out in great detail why the program violates the law and called for an investigation:

The REACH program as implemented by AAAP and Yale violates Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin. Furthermore, because REACH is a health program, such discrimination also violates Section 1557 of the ACA.
Title VI prohibits intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any “program or activity” that receives federal financial assistance. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d. The term “program or activity” encompasses “all of the operations … of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-4a(2)(A). As noted in Rowles v. Curators of the University of Missouri, 983 F.3d 345, 355 (8th Cir. 2020), “Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and therefore applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance. Because Yale and AAAP receive federal funds, they are subject to Title VI.8 ….

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) bars discrimination based on race or sex in any health program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. This includes funding from the HHS for programs that provide health education, conduct clinical or health research, or deliver health-related services. The nondiscrimination requirements apply broadly, covering “all of the operations of any entity principally engaged” in administering or providing these types of health initiatives.9

AAAP and Yale’s explicit race, ethnicity, and/or national origin eligibility requirements are presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, their offering, promotion, and administration of these programs violates state and federal civil rights statutes.

We called on HHS to open a formal investigation:

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since AAAP and Yale cannot show any compelling government justification for it, the fact that they condition eligibility on race, color, or national origin violates federal civil rights statutes and the Affordable Care Act.

HHS OCR has the power and obligation to investigate AAAP and Yale’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering this fellowship and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold them accountable for that unlawful conduct.

Fox News digital covered the story:

Yale University is facing a civil rights complaint due to its affiliation with a training program that restricts eligibility to non-White applicants.

The Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation is filing a civil rights complaint against the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) and Yale School of Medicine “for their administration and promotion” of the REACH (Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in AddictiThe program makes clear that applicants must be U.S. on through Culturally informed Healthcare) program.citizens and come from “a racial/ethnic minoritized population,” including “Black, African, or African American, non-Caucasian Hispanic or Latinx, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.”

“Regardless of AAAP and Yale’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such a discriminatory fellowship, they are violating Title VI by doing so. It does not matter if the recipient of federal funding discriminates in order to advance a benign ‘intention’ or ‘motivation,’” the complaint states.

REACH selects scholars for a year-long training session that aims to improve the care of racial and ethnic groups or “underrepresented minorities” with “substance use disorders.” REACH scholars receive up to $104,000 and travel accommodations and have access to mentors.

The fellowship eligibility criteria are discriminatory, the civil rights complaint argues. It argues further that since REACH is a health program, it violates section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act and, because Yale and AAAP receive federal funds, they are subject to violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Yale School of Medicine’s website describes the REACH Program as “a year-long training program designed to supplement the education of medical students, residents, fellows, and allied health professional trainees in ways to improve health outcomes for racial and ethnic underrepresented minority patients with substance use disorders.”

“The overall goal of the REACH training program is to: (1) increase the overall number of racial and ethnic underrepresented minority (URM) addiction specialists in the Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine workforce, and (2) increase the number of addiction specialists adequately trained to work with racial and ethnic URM patients with substance use disorders.” …

“AAAP and Yale’s explicit race, ethnicity, and/or national origin program requirements are presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, their offering, promotion, and administration of these programs violates state and civil rights statutes and constitutional protection guarantees,” the complaint states.

William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, told Fox News Digital that “HHS provided a grant to AAAP, which partnered with Yale, to improve minority community health outcomes.”

“Such programming must never be permitted to cross the line into discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. This line, unfortunately, appears to have been breached at AAAP and Yale by racially-restrictive eligibility criteria,” he added.

Neither Yale nor the AAAP immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Reminder: 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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