Watchdog group files complaint, urges Trump admin to probe Washington University over illegal DEI policies

A legal watchdog accusing Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, of continuing its diversity, equity and inclusion practices is calling on the Department of Justice to conduct a formal probe.

One of the nation’s top-ranked universities, WashU is also among the nation’s “top recipients of federal funding,” America First Legal noted as it called on the Trump administration to intervene in a civil rights complaint filed Jan. 7. The conservative legal group said it was “requesting an immediate investigation and enforcement action” against WashU for “its systemic, deliberate, and ongoing use of illegal ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) practices that discriminate on the basis of race, sex, and other protected characteristics while taking billions in federal taxpayer funds.”

Federally funded institutions are required to comply with federal civil rights laws and relevant executive directives, America First Legal noted. President Donald Trump made eliminating DEI an early priority of his administration, issuing executive orders aiming to restore “merit-based opportunity.” 

“Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,” one of Trump’s DEI-related executive orders noted, adding that no American should be demeaned or excluded from opportunities because of race or sex. 

Yet instead of scrubbing its existing DEI programs, “WashU delayed action, selectively scrubbed its public-facing website language, rebranded its DEI framework, and tasked lawyers and administrators with finding a way to preserve the same illegal practices,” America First Legal claims. 

“This position defies common sense. Institutions that are complying with the law do not spend months delaying action and convening lawyers to figure out how to proceed,” America First Legal attorney Megan Redshaw said in a statement. “Washington University did not misunderstand the law. It chose to ignore it and preserve unlawful DEI practices through rebranding, bureaucratic maneuvering, and euphemisms. That is not compliance. It is concealment.” 

The watchdog’s lengthy complaint details how WashU’s more than $3.1 billion in federal grants since 2021 include funds that were used to “prioritize certain racial or ethnic groups in research and workforce pipelines, as well as recruitment, retention, and student support initiatives structured to produce race-based outcomes.” 

It also accuses the school of asking student applicants for diversity statements, in violation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in university admissions. WashU also requires diversity statements when hiring faculty, America First Legal said, “disadvantaging candidates who do not frame their teaching, research, or service through DEI criteria.” 

The Lion has reached out to the university’s communications department for comment in response to the complaint.