The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday announced the creation of the “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” to crack down on any university that receives federal funds but “knowingly violates federal civil rights laws.”
“Institutions that take federal money only to allow anti-Semitism and promote divisive DEI policies are putting their access to federal funds at risk,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate these violations of civil rights – inaction is not an option.”
The unit will specifically utilize the False Claims Act, a federal civil law that allows the federal government to recover funds lost because of fraud. The law also empowers private citizens to sue on the government’s behalf and potentially receive a portion of recovered funds.
The DOJ also announced the new unit in a memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said the law could be implicated “when a federal contractor or recipient of federal funds knowingly violates civil rights laws- including but not limited to Title IV, Title VI, and Title IX, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964- and falsely certifies compliance with such laws.”
The memo goes on:
Accordingly, a university that accepts federal funds could violate the False Claims Act when it encourages antisemitism, refuses to protect Jewish students, allows men to intrude into women’s bathrooms, or requires women to compete against men in athletic competitions. Colleges and universities cannot accept federal funds while discriminating against their students.
“The False Claims Act is also implicated whenever federal-funding recipients or contractors certify compliance with civil rights laws while knowingly engaging in racist preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities, including through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that assign benefits or burdens on race, ethnicity, or national origin,” the memo continues. “While racial discrimination has always been illegal, the prohibition on such policies became clear after the Supreme Court stated that ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.'”
The initiative will be co-led by the Civil Division’s Fraud Section and the Civil Rights Division, and each division will work with a team of attorneys to “aggressively pursue this work together,” the memo states. The DOJ will also coordinate with other agencies, like the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as state attorneys general and local law enforcement.
The DOJ is also encouraging private lawsuits against institutions as it “recognizes that it alone cannot identify every instance of civil rights fraud.” Blanche noted in the memo that “many corporations and schools continue to adhere to racist policies and preferences- albeit camouflaged with cosmetic changes that disguise their discriminatory nature,” despite President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the practice.
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