In boilerplate letters, the administration told recipients that the grants supported diversity efforts and were wasteful.
The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to let it cancel $65 million in teacher-training grants that it contends would promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The court indicated that it would act quickly on the government’s emergency application, ordering the challengers to respond by Friday.
The filing was the administration’s second emergency application this week asking the justices objecting to a lower-court ruling against it, and the fifth since President Trump took office.
The Education Department last month sent grant recipients boilerplate form letters ending the funding, saying the recipients were engaged in activities “that violate either the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law; that conflict with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; that are not free from fraud, abuse or duplication; or that otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States.”
Judge Myong J. Joun of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts temporarily ordered the grants to remain available while he considered a suit brought by California and seven other states challenging the terminations.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, rejected a request from the Trump administration to pause Judge Joun’s order, saying the government’s arguments were based on “speculation and hyperbole.”