The Supreme Court permitted the Department of Education on Friday to maintain its freeze on $65 million in teacher training grants that the administration claims pushed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The emergency ruling temporarily lifts an order from a lower court that required the Education Department to resume the teacher grants in eight blue states that sued. The department terminated over $600 million in such grants, citing the DEI ideology as its rationale, before being forced to reinstate the funding.
While Friday’s order represents the second Trump administration’s first legal victory at the nation’s highest court, the decision is not a final ruling in the case. The lawsuit now returns to trial court.
The Supreme Court was divided in its opinion, with five conservative justices siding with the Trump administration and Chief Justice John Roberts, along with the Court’s three liberal members, dissenting.
“Respondents have not refuted the Government’s representation that it is unlikely to recover the grant funds once they are disbursed,” the majority said of the states challenging the Trump administration. “By contrast, the Government compellingly argues that respondents would not suffer irreparable harm while the [temporary restraining order] is stayed.”
“Respondents have represented in this litigation that they have the financial wherewithal to keep their programs running,” the majority added in its unsigned ruling. “So, if respondents ultimately prevail, they can recover any wrongfully withheld funds through suit in an appropriate forum.”
The order follows an appeals court’s decision to reject the Trump administration’s request to consider a lower court’s ruling, in which a federal judge in Boston temporarily ordered the grants to remain unfrozen while the lawsuit played out. The judge reasoned that if the grants were suspended, school programs would suffer.
The two grant programs in question, the Teacher Quality Partnership Program and the Supporting Effective Educator Development Program, are designed to recruit teachers to help combat the profession’s national shortage.
However, the Education Department said “divisive ideologies” such as critical race theory, social justice activism, and anti-racism were integrated into the mission of the grant programs. Additionally, many of the grants were geared toward individuals from “underrepresented populations.”
Following the cancellation of those grants, California led the charge in suing to restore them. The seven other states attached to the lawsuit were Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin. They claimed schools were irreparably harmed by the funding cuts.
In its emergency application to the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice argued that the judicial branch intruded on the executive branch’s authority.
“The aim is clear: to stop the Executive Branch in its tracks and prevent the Administration from changing direction on hundreds of billions of dollars of government largesse that the Executive Branch considers contrary to the United States’ interests and fiscal health,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote.
The federal government has made a similar argument in other cases, including an appeal against a judge’s order that questioned the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The Supreme Court previously struck down the administration’s appeal seeking to halt a judge’s deadline that required the resumption of $2 billion in foreign aid that was once frozen. Litigation in the case remains pending.