Education is often the key for students to unlock their potential, but discriminatory policies are denying students the chance for a quality education.
Discrimination has no place in our nation’s schools, colleges, and academic programs.
Racially discriminatory policies are insidious and just the latest iteration of the long-rejected idea that race and sex ought to determine opportunity in America. All men are created equal, and every person is guaranteed equal protection of the laws.
As Chief Justice John Roberts rightly said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
Pacific Legal Foundation fights to ensure that students aren’t denied a quality education because of their race or sex.
New York City’s Specialized High Schools are some of the best public schools in the nation: They boast Nobel Laureates, writers, astronauts, entrepreneurs, and musicians among their alumni. But in 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the schools “a monumental injustice” because of their “diversity problem.” His administration revised the admissions criteria to favor certain middle schools—thereby increasing black and Hispanic enrollment while decreasing Asian enrollment. New York parents sued, with Pacific Legal Foundation’s help. In 2024, after nearly six years of litigation, we won an initial victory: The Second Circuit ruled the plaintiffs had successfully shown the discriminatory effects of the new admissions policy. Litigation now continues on whether the city had discriminatory intent.
The district has been accused of operating academic programs that are only marketed to Black students
A California-based civil rights organization is now suing Fresno Unified School District for racial discrimination.
The policy of race-based admissions to Californias’s UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland internship program is facing a very serious federal lawsuit.
You’ve got to be 16 to drive, 17 to enlist in the military, 18 to vote. Is there also a minimum age for First Amendment protection?
A California school district violated the First Amendment when it punished a first grader who drew a picture for her friend with the phrases “Black Lives Mater” and “any life” written on it, the P…
For many, going to college is a rite of passage—a step toward opportunity and realizing the American dream. College is where students meet like-minded peers, experience life away from home, and begin to find their place and purpose in the world. But if sky-high tuition and housing costs weren’t already significant barriers for many prospective […]
After nearly six years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued a major victory for New York City parents in the case of CACAGNY v. Adams. The court ruled the plaintiffs, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, have successfully shown discriminatory effects of a school admissions policy started by former […]
When siblings Mary Beth and John Tinker were just 13 and 15 years old, they found themselves at the center of a major Supreme Court case. The Court’s 1969 ruling would later be remembered as a groundbreaking decision that affirmed the First Amendment rights of students, regardless of age. Mary Beth, John, and their four […]
Does free speech have age restrictions? The Supreme Court says no. But one California judge ignored the Court’s landmark decisions and upheld a public school’s decision to punish a first-grader over a picture she drew in class. The student’s mother is now fighting back to protect her daughter’s right to free speech. An innocent drawing […]
A student’s race should not determine their access to public educational programs. The Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause specifically safeguards against this kind of discrimination. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in New York State’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP). Originally intended to help students prepare for college, the program is open to any […]
We received heartbreaking news this week when the Supreme Court denied our petition for a writ of certiorari in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board. The case challenged the school board’s overhaul of admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology—one of the best public high schools in America—undertaken to limit […]
It’s a brave new world out there for college admissions officers. Gone are the days when they could use racial stereotypes as a stand-in for an applicant’s personal qualities or deduct points for being Asian American. When the Supreme Court finally put an end to these racist and unconstitutional admissions practices in June, it left […]
Envy: a feeling of resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck “I walked into Stuyvesant High school and I thought I was in Chinatown,” Milady Baez, then-deputy chancellor of the Department of Education in New York City, complained to colleagues at a 2018 meeting. Baez’ point was clear: There were, in her […]
