America First Legal Newsletter – February 8, 2026

America First Legal has continued to deliver results where they matter most —  and this past week was no exception. We’re excited to share another round of bold, impactful action from AFL’s ongoing efforts to defend the American people. Last week, AFL:

• Secured a major win after a federal appeals court revived AFL’s lawsuit against the School District of Philadelphia for unlawfully replacing merit-based school admissions with a race-driven system. 

• Achieved a major court victory forcing Nashville to release Covenant School shooting records, protecting the public’s right to transparency.

• Secured a ruling preventing Maricopa County from blocking AFL’s representation of the County Recorder, clearing the path for the Recorder’s lawsuit against the Maricopa County Board, after the Board impeded his ability to protect election integrity in the County by stripping him of election responsibilities.

• Sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)  to expose the Biden Administration’s race-based IOTA organ transplant policy and the outside influence behind it.

• Requested the White House withdraw the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB)  Regulation C for unlawfully forcing lenders to collect or guess applicants’ race and sex, violating privacy and promoting discriminatory lending.

THIS WEEK’S KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

VICTORY — Federal Appeals Court Reverses Dismissal of America First Legal’s Lawsuit on Behalf of Parents Challenging Philadelphia’s Race-Based School Admissions Scheme

America First Legal, along with outside counsel, won a major victory after the Third Circuit revived AFL’s lawsuit on behalf of parents and students against the School District of Philadelphia for its race-driven takeover of formerly merit-based public high school admissions. The court ruled there is strong evidence the district rewrote its standards with discriminatory intent and said the scheme must face “strict scrutiny,” the toughest test under the U.S. Constitution. After the George Floyd riots, the district had scrapped its merit-based admission standards, instead using zip codes as racial proxies, and replacing objective merit with lotteries engineered to produce demographic outcomes. Favored neighborhoods received automatic admission while qualified students elsewhere — often Asian and White — were pushed aside in a zero-sum process. 

Following this significant ruling by the appellate court, the case will proceed on the merits. AFL will continue its fight in this and other cases to stop entities, whether school systems, other government bodies, or the private sector, from rigging the system for ideological DEI goals instead of equal, merit-based opportunity.

VICTORY — America First Legal Breaks Nashville’s Years-Long Stonewalling Over Covenant School Shooter “Manifesto”

America First Legal won a major victory after a Tennessee appeals court ordered Nashville to stop hiding records from the March 27, 2023, mass shooting at the Covenant School, including the shooter’s manifesto. The court rejected the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County’s (Metro)  blanket secrecy claims and ruled officials must review records individually and release everything not lawfully protected under the Public Records Act. AFL sued after Nashville first promised transparency, then reversed course and locked away over 100 gigabytes of material while the FBI, not Metro, released only a fraction.

The ruling exposes a political cover-up and affirms that copyright excuses and bureaucratic games can’t override the public’s right to know. AFL will continue its relentless battle to ensure that transparency and accountability — not government censorship — govern how public records are handled.

VICTORY — America First Legal Defeats Maricopa County’s Attempt to Hijack County Recorder’s Legal Representation, Clearing the Way for Arizona Election Integrity Lawsuit to Proceed

America First Legal scored a major win in Arizona after a judge blocked the Maricopa County attorney’s attempt to prevent AFL from representing County Recorder Justin Heap in a lawsuit against the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBS). The court, in dismissing the case, rejected the county attorney’s power grab and ruled she has no authority to control another elected official’s selection of legal counsel.

The court’s ruling strengthens the fight for election integrity and rejects bureaucratic obstruction of a duly elected official. This clears the way for Recorder Heap’s case against the MCBS, which has stripped him of resources to restore election integrity in the County. AFL is proud to represent Recorder Heap as he continues his fight to stop the County from interfering into and restoring transparency and accountability to Maricopa County elections.

America First Legal Sues HHS and CMS to Expose Behind-the-Scenes Influence of Biden-Era Race-Based Organ Transplant Policy

America First Legal has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against HHS and CMS to expose the Biden Administration’s behind-the-scenes coordination with outside groups that helped push race-based organ transplant policies. The suit targets the Biden Administration’s failure to release records about the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model, a mandatory six-year program that financially rewards hospitals and allows race to factor into transplant decisions. AFL is seeking communications with NGOs, contractors, and other stakeholders who influenced this policy agenda. Despite acknowledging the requests, HHS and CMS produced no records and offered no timeline, forcing AFL to sue for transparency. 

AFL will not stand by as the public is kept from records to which it is entitled, regardless of which government agency is doing so. In this case, the records AFL seeks will reveal what outside forces worked with the Biden Administration to instill discrimination into the American healthcare system.

America First Legal Urges White House to Block Unlawful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Rule Mandating Race and Sex Data in Mortgage Applications

America First Legal filed a petition urging the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to withdraw approval of a federal regulation issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), known as Regulation C. This regulation forces lenders to collect mortgage applicants’ race, ethnicity, and sex. The rule exceeds the agency’s authority, violates privacy, and burdens lenders with unnecessary federal overreach. Under Regulation C, lenders can even guess an applicant’s race or sex if the person refuses to answer, creating serious risks and inviting discrimination.

Citing the Supreme Court’s rejection of race-based decision-making and President Trump’s “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” order, the policy promotes demographic sorting instead of merit. AFL is calling for a rollback of this unlawful data collection to restore neutral, colorblind, merit-based lending.

AMERICA FIRST LEGAL IN THE NEWS:

Joe Rogan Experience: Joe Rogan Experience #2447 - Mike Benz

"America First Legal, Stephen Miller and Gene Hamilton's non-profit law firm, they started obtaining these incredible documents that showed a planning meeting between the British government and the Biden Administration attended by the CIA, the National Security Council, and the USAID hosted at the White House, and it was the British, the UK Digital Commission. They brought a big slide deck of all the ways that their new censorship law, which they call the Online Safety Act (OSA), would effectively help throttle misinformation in the United States."

USA Today: Nike investigated for discriminating against White people in DEI probe

“America First Legal, cofounded by senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, has peppered top companies with dozens of discrimination complaints and posted on social media seeking more White people to file legal claims. The legal advocacy organization filed a federal civil rights complaint against Nike, alleging race and sex discrimination against White men in 2024.”

New York Post: White House pushed to scrap race, sex requirements for mortgage applications

“A Trump-aligned legal group is pushing the White House to do away with a requirement that home lenders collect data on the race and sex of mortgage applicants.

America First Legal (AFL), founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, is decrying the rule as a racial ‘surveillance tool’ and urging the Trump administration to restore ‘colorblind’ lending policies.”

Fox News: From Obama award to Minnesota op: Why Trump tapped Tom Homan for on-the-ground crackdown

“‘Tom Homan is a decorated career law enforcement professional whose service has spanned multiple presidential administrations, both Republican and Democratic. He is a no-nonsense American patriot who is dedicated to making his country better. So I have every bit of confidence that Tom is the right person for the job,’ America First Legal president Gene Hamilton said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

‘People know exactly who they are dealing with when they deal with Tom Homan. He's a known entity,’ Hamilton continued. 

Hamilton worked on immigration policy during Trump’s first term and alongside Homan, and he told Fox News Digital that Homan is the right fit to oversee the Minnesota operation because of his law-and-order approach and record across administrations. Hamilton is now president of America First Legal, after previously working as Trump’s deputy White House counsel during the first half of 2025.”

Fox News: Watchdog claims proof of 'harm' nonexistent in suit against Trump's ban on trans surgeries for minors

“A Trump-aligned lawfare group filed records requests attempting to uncover the ‘harm’ that Democrat-led states said was being incurred as a result of President Trump's executive order banning sex changes for minors.

After 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro sued the president and his Department of Justice over the executive order Aug. 1, America First Legal filed records requests to those states suing in an attempt to uncover whether the claims of injury are true and accurate.”

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