Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

November 20, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On November 20, 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 “Lehigh University’s Advancing Future Faculty Development Postdoctoral Program (“Advancing Future Program”) that discriminates on the basis of race, color, national origin, and/or sex in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

EPP’s Complaint continues:

The Advancing Future Faculty Development Postdoctoral Program is a tenure-track training initiative at Lehigh University “designed to create an outstanding professional opportunity for scholars with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, including those historically underrepresented in the academy…”

The Advancing Future Program violates both Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin and Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex.9 White males are disadvantaged relative to women and racial and ethnic minorities.

The Complaint uses Lehigh’s own websites to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of the programs.

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

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. § 2000d-4a(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 Lehigh receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs, it is subject to Title VI…

 

Regardless of Lehigh’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such a discriminatory program, they are violating Title VI by doing so. It does not matter if the recipient of federal funding discriminates in order to advance a benign “intention” or “motivation.” Bostock v. Clayton Cnty., 590 U.S. 644, 661 (2020) (“Intentionally burning down a neighbor’s house is arson, even if the perpetrator’s ultimate intention (or motivation) is only to improve the view.”); accord Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U.S. 187, 199 (1991) (“the absence of a malevolent motive does not convert a facially discriminatory policy into a neutral policy with a discriminatory effect” or “alter [its] intentionally discriminatory character”). “Nor does it matter if the recipient discriminates against an individual member of a protected class with the idea that doing so might favor the interests of that class as a whole or otherwise promote equality at the group level.” Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., 600 U.S. 181, 289 (2023) (Gorsuch, J., concurring).

 

Finally, the Complaint then requests that OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate Lehigh’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering this program. 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., 551 U.S. at 748.

Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights prioritize and promptly open a formal investigation, impose all appropriate remedial measures permitted by law to protect individuals who have been unlawfully excluded from Lehigh’s programs on the basis of discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all current and future scholarships and programs at Lehigh fully comply with all applicable federal civil-rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.