Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

July 18, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On July 18, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Florida State University (FSU) “for discrimination in thirty-two (32) scholarships based on race, color, national origin, and/or sex, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

The Complaint continued:

The scholarships listed below are currently offered to FSU students and applicants for admission, according to the FSU website, and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by discriminating against students based on their race, color or national origin, or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations by discriminating against students based on their sex. Because FSU is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Complaint then used FSU’s own website to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of each of the challenged scholarships.

Next, the Complaint explained why the challenged scholarships violate federal law:

The scholarships identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin, or Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex, or both. Furthermore, because FSU is a public university, such discrimination also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

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. § 2000d4a(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 FSU receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs, it is subject to Title VI…

 

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. The statute provides: “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). Accordingly, a school receiving federal funding may not administer scholarships, fellowships, or other forms of financial assistance that impose preferences or restrictions based on sex, except in limited exceptions that are not applicable here. See 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(a)…

 

As FSU is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Finally, the Complaint summarized and requested OCR take action:

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since FSU cannot show any compelling government justification for it, the fact that it conditions eligibility for multiple scholarships on race, color, national origin, and sex violates federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

 

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate FSU’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether FSU is engaging in such discrimination in its other activities –and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for that unlawful conduct. This includes, if necessary, imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance and referring the case to the Department of Justice for judicial proceedings to enforce the rights of the United States under federal law…

 

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights prioritize and expedite this complaint given the sheer number of discriminatory scholarships at FSU reflecting a systematic disregard for Titles VI and IX, promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from FSU’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at FSU comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.