Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

August 28, 2025

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On August 28, 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 the Claremont Colleges “for offering, promoting, and administering one or more discriminatory scholarships and programs based on race, color, national origin, sex, or both, in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively.”

EPP’s Complaint continues:

All of the undergraduate institutional members of the Claremont Colleges offer, promote, or administer a discriminatory joint fellowship, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program… In addition, several of the schools offer other
scholarships or programs that are also discriminatory and violate federal law…

The Complaint uses the Claremont Colleges Members’ own websites to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of the programs.

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

The scholarships and programs identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin, Title IX by discriminating on the basis of sex, or both.

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 the Claremont Colleges Member institutions receive federal funds, they are 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)…

The Claremont Colleges respective race, color, national origin, and sex-based scholarships and programs are presumptively invalid; the offering, promotion, and administration of these programs violates federal civil rights statutes.

Finally, the Complaint then requests that OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate the Claremont Colleges’ role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether the Claremont Colleges are engaging in such discrimination in its other activities – as well as the duty to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for this 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. 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).

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from these various scholarships and programs based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at the Claremont Colleges and its institutional members comports with the federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.