A Year After the February 14, 2025 USDOE Dear Colleague Letter and Title VI Coordinator Best Practice Issues
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to real estate professionals clarifying that sharing crime or school quality information with prospective homebuyers or renters is not a...more
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of Thompson Coburn’s Higher Education Litigation Summary, your resource for timely legal updates on key rulings and ongoing cases shaping the higher education sector. Bold text indicates...more
Last year, higher education institutions were met with executive orders, a "Dear Colleague" letter, state and local legislation, and agency guidance that impacted their efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion...more
Amid the uncertainty over whether a funding deal will be reached, healthcare hearings will continue despite the impasse this week, with congressional committees scheduled to hold a variety of healthcare-focused hearings,...more
Welcome to the February 2026 edition of Thompson Coburn’s Higher Education Litigation Summary, your resource for timely legal updates on key rulings and ongoing cases shaping the higher education sector. Bold text indicates...more
On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) approved Iowa’s “Returning Education to the States Waiver,” making Iowa the first state to receive such approval. This waiver frees Iowa from several...more
The US Department of Education recently abandoned its legal defense of controversial guidance that sought to ban DEI programs at colleges and universities nationwide. On January 21, the Department quietly dismissed its appeal...more
One year after the DOE’s Dear Colleague Letter, institutions are still wrestling with the shifts in federal enforcement priorities redefining what Title VI compliance means. Jackson Lewis’ Carol Ashley and Dani Bland...more
On February 2, 2026, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released a request for public comment entitled, Request for Public Comment on the Updated Criteria for Determining Maternity Care Health...more
The U.S. Department of Education, on Jan. 21, 2026, withdrew its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit aimed at defending its anti-DEI Dear Colleague Letter issued last year. The Trump Administration’s...more
On January 21, 2026, the United States Department of Education ("ED" or the "Department") stipulated to the dismissal of its appeal in American Federation of Teachers, et al v. U.S. Department of Education, which had been...more
The Trump Administration has withdrawn its appeal in a lawsuit challenging the Department of Education’s efforts to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in school districts and colleges throughout the...more
We are pleased to share the new 2026 edition of Thompson Coburn’s Higher Education Litigation Summary, your resource for timely legal updates on key rulings and ongoing cases shaping the higher education sector. ...more
The Congressional Robotics Caucus was relaunched and expanded in 2025 as a bipartisan effort to educate members of Congress about the potential of robotics and its connection to artificial intelligence (AI). ...more
Following the vacatur of the Department of Education’s anti-DEI guidance, institutions receiving federal education funds may want to reevaluate compliance frameworks, policy positions, and academic governance under clarified...more
What began with the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) February 2025 Dear Colleague Letter has now unraveled into injunctions, stays, and ultimately a ruling that voided the guidance and its certification requirements...more
On August 14, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a significant decision in American Federation of Teachers v. U.S. Department of Education, holding that the Department’s demand that states and...more
On August 14, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the U.S. Department of Education violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the U.S. Constitution when it did not follow proper...more
A recent executive order attacks DEI accreditation standards as courts block enforcement of the Department of Education’s Dear Colleague Letter on race. On April 23, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14279 (EO)...more
The Trump administration has deluged higher education with an avalanche of executive orders, Dear Colleague letters, and social media posts since January 20. Advocacy groups have responded with litigation in dozens of courts...more
The Trump administration continued its focus on immigration and indicated progress in trade talks as this week marked the end of its first 100 days....more
On April 24, 2025, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire largely blocked the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding for schools that refuse to drop diversity, equity, and...more
On April 24, 2025, the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Hampshire and the District of Maryland issued separate orders blocking enforcement of all, or large portions of, the Dear Colleague Letter (“DCL”) issued by...more
We took the week off from our Week in Review alert last week as it was a (relatively) slow week. However, as it tends to happen after a slow week, developments picked back up this week....more
On April 9, an agreement was reached in a New Hampshire federal court blocking the U.S. Department of Education (ED) from taking any enforcement action under the February 14 “Dear Colleague” Letter (DCL) or the April 3 ED...more