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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) filed a sweeping civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting an immediate investigation and enforcement action against Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) for its systemic, deliberate, and ongoing use of illegal “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) practices that discriminate on the basis of race, sex, and other protected characteristics while taking billions in federal taxpayer funds.
This filing follows AFL’s prior civil rights complaint filed on September 15, 2025, which extensively detailed illegal DEI practices within WashU’s School of Medicine.
As a leading university and one of the nation’s top recipients of federal funding, WashU is required to comply with federal civil rights laws and applicable executive directives, which reaffirm that recipients of federal funds must adhere to longstanding nondiscrimination requirements. WashU’s own statements, together with the conduct documented in AFL’s complaint, demonstrate a sustained refusal to bring its practices into compliance.
Nearly six months after President Trump's inauguration and the issuance of clear federal enforcement priorities targeting illegal DEI practices, WashU announced that it had convened a committee of faculty and administrators, working with general counsel, to develop “guidance,” allowing continued pursuit of its “diversity, equity, and inclusion” objectives under the rebranded banner of “Inclusive Excellence,” while “continuing to comply with federal guidance and laws.”
Yet instead of dismantling its discriminatory programs, WashU delayed action, selectively scrubbed its public-facing website language, rebranded its DEI framework, and tasked lawyers and administrators with finding a way to preserve the same illegal practices.
“This position defies common sense. Institutions that are complying with the law do not spend months delaying action and convening lawyers to figure out how to proceed,” said Megan Redshaw, an attorney at America First Legal. “Washington University did not misunderstand the law. It chose to ignore it and preserve unlawful DEI practices through rebranding, bureaucratic maneuvering, and euphemisms. That is not compliance. It is concealment.”
AFL’s complaint highlights how WashU has chosen defiance: DEI is not peripheral at the university. It is systemic and pervasive — shaping admissions, hiring, coursework, contracting, and federally funded research through policies, trainings, programs, and institutional directives that remain fully in force despite the illusion of compliance.
Key findings of AFL’s 165-page complaint include:
WashU has received over $3.1 billion in federal grants since 2021, including funding for programs that expressly prioritize certain racial or ethnic groups in research and workforce pipelines, as well as recruitment, retention, and student support initiatives structured to produce race-based outcomes. WashU’s holistic admissions process solicits and evaluates diversity statements based on race and ethnicity, encouraging applicants to disclose protected characteristics and embedding race-conscious decision-making into a zero-sum admissions process in violation of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and DOJ guidance. WashU’s Olin Business School conditions grading, evaluation, and professional advancement on compliance with identity-based frameworks. Students are segregated by race, sex, and other protected characteristics in the classroom and evaluated on concepts such as “privilege,” “implicit bias,” and “systemic inequity,” with dissent penalized through grading and peer evaluation. WashU operates a “Bias Report and Support System” that solicits reports against faculty, staff, students, and community members for perceived violations, including protected speech, and channels those reports into DEI enforcement and disciplinary mechanisms that chill dissent and police expression. WashU’s “Supplier Engagement & Development” program, formerly “Supplier Diversity,” steers contracting opportunities toward minority- and women-owned businesses, operating a preference system in federally funded procurement in violation of federal civil rights law. WashU conditions faculty hiring on the submission and evaluation of diversity statements, requiring applicants to demonstrate alignment with institutional equity priorities and disadvantaging candidates who do not frame their teaching, research, or service through DEI criteria.
“Washington University is supposed to be an institution of higher learning, not a DEI indoctrination camp,” Redshaw added. “Federal law is clear. Race discrimination is illegal. Universities that receive federal funds do not get to substitute ideology for merit, or euphemisms for compliance.”
AFL’s complaint urges that the Department of Justice review WashU’s conduct, assess compliance with civil rights laws and applicable executive orders, and take appropriate enforcement action to ensure that federal civil rights protections are upheld.
Read the full civil rights complaint here.
Read more about DEI practices at WashU here.
Learn more about AFL’s fight to dismantle DEI here.
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