Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

February 26, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case Number 08-25-2196

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On February 26, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint against the University of New Mexico (UMN) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “for race-based and sex-based discrimination in violation of Title VI and Title IX, respectively. Specifically, UNM offers, administers, and promotes ten (10) scholarships that discriminate based on race, sex, or both.”

EPP’s Complaint then uses UNM’s own website to describe each scholarship and how it discriminates based on race and/or sex.

EPP’s Complaint then explains why these scholarships violate federal law and the United States Constitution:

The scholarships identified above violate either Title VI, by discriminating on the basis of race, skin color, or national origin; Title IX, by discriminating on the basis of sex; or both. Furthermore, because UNM 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. § 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 UNM receives and administers federal funds through numerous programs and is a public institution, 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 UNM is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering these discriminatory scholarships also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…

 

UNM’s explicit race- and sex-based scholarships are presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, UNM’s offering, promotion, and administration of these programs violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

EPP’s Complaint then summarizes and requests that OCR take action:

Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since UNM 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 UNM’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering these scholarships – and, given how many there are, to discern whether UNM 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 ongoing application considerations and number of discriminatory scholarships at UNM 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 UNM’s various scholarships based on discriminatory criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at UNM comports with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

OCR is evaluating EPP’s Complaint for further action.