Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Justice, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

12/7/2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On December 7, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Harvard University for “involvement in the Union Scholars Program (“Union Scholars”), a program run jointly by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (“AFSCME”) and Harvard.” This program is “…open only to individuals from “historically marginalized communities,” which AFSCME describes in its promotional materials as “students of color.”

EPP’s Complaint continues:

AFSCME has run the Union Scholars Program since 2003, when it was created in partnership with Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy and the Wurf Fund. The program is for “students of color” and provides ten applicants with a $4,800 stipend, a $6,000 need-based scholarship, paid housing and travel, among other benefits.

On its “Scholarships” page, the program is described as “a summer internship program for students of color passionate about social justice and workers’ rights.” This language is consistent with prior descriptions of the program on other platforms.

The Complaint uses Harvard and AFSCME’ own websites to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of this program.

Next, the Complaint further explains why the program challenged violates federal law:

Harvard is a private university that receives significant federal funding, including from the Department of Justice, and is required to comply with Title VI. The Union Scholars Program violates Title VI because, according to AFSCME’s own website, it conditions eligibility for participation on a student’s race, color, or national origin (“students of color”).

 

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 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” means “all of the operations … of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education.” See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-4a(2)(A); Rowles v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo., 983 F.3d 345, 355 (8th Cir. 2020) (“Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in federally funded programs,” and thus applies to universities receiving federal financial assistance). As Harvard receives federal funds, including from the Department of Justice, it is subject to Title VI.

 

Harvard is familiar with the law prohibiting use of race in admissions, as it was a party in in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023), where the Supreme Court declared that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it …. The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.” Id. at 206 (cleaned up). “Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry [including race] are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.” Id. at 208.

Finally, the Complaint then requests that OCR take action:

The Department of Justice has the power and obligation to investigate Harvard’s involvement in the Union Scholars Program as well as the duty to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to do so. 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. After all, “[t]he way to stop discrimination … is to stop discriminating[.]” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 748 (2007).

 

Considering that Harvard litigated the issue of race-based admissions all the way to the Supreme Court and lost, prompt and aggressive DOJ action is warranted. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Department of Justice promptly open a formal investigation and, depending on its outcome, initiate legal action to impose appropriate remedial relief. Such relief is necessary both to remedy the unlawful exclusion of individuals from the Union Scholars Program and to ensure that all ongoing and future program activities comply with federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.