Civil Rights Fraud Initiative

On Monday, May 19, 2025, the Federal government established the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (CRFI). The memo, which can be linked to at the bottom of the webpage here, rests on the same logic as the February 14, 2025, Dear Colleague letter, a reading of which is on our website here, and can be summarized thusly:

• The connection between Students for Fair Admissions (SFA) Inc v. Fellows of Harvard, which overturned institutional race-based admissions practices is tenuous and still being litigated.  Another way of saying this is that the current administration believes that the Supreme Court Decision on Students for Fair Admission means that institutions cannot have any attention paid to race at all and doing so violates Civil Rights. However: 
• The clarifying memo and our reading of the memo regarding the Dear Colleague Letter basically walked back the claims that institutions were violating civil rights by attending to race in many parts of their institutions.
• Attend to language like ‘illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or ‘illegal divisive concepts’ and review definitions of ‘divisive concepts’ in documents, to include our resource on Potential Responses to Inquiries; EOs on Race, Gender, and Citizenship; and Ending Racial Indoctrination, all of which illustrate institutions are most likely following law and interpretation of it.The CRFI, resting on SFA, rests heavily on Antisemitism and transgendered policies institutions may have, which is not covered in SFA. The logic is not only tenuous but false.
• The CRFI memo is operating in the vein of most other previous correspondence, making claims that institutions are doing something antithetical to Civil Rights and so need to be investigated. Some guidance:
• If your institution was not violating Civil Rights prior to January 2025, you most likely are not now. Of course, review areas where improvement is necessary. Your institution most likely has processes and procedures like Title IX and complaint processes, to include evaluations of faculty and staff that would or do catch problematic approaches to identity.
• Remember that you cannot control the behavior of all people on your campus and consider which policies need to be created versus what harm such policies being created can do, not only to your culture, but also increasing your liability.