Young Americans for Freedom taking Biden-Harris admin to court over race-based scholarships

The student organization Young Americans for Freedom is taking the Biden-Harris administration to court over a scholarship and career advancement program it claims discriminates against Americans on the basis of race.

According to the federal lawsuit filed this week by the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of two students and YAF's University of North Dakota chapter, the $60 million Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, which supports around 6,000 students annually, gives preferential treatment to a "list of favored racial groups."

Noticeably missing from that list are Caucasians, Asians, Jews, Arabs, and other students who fail, through no fault of their own, to "fit into a narrow exception for first-generation low-income students," said the lawsuit, which names both the DOE and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as defendants.

According to the Biden-Harris Department of Education:

Students who qualify for McNair must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at an eligible institution. In all projects, at least two-thirds of the participants must be low-income, potential first-generation college students. The remaining participants may be from groups that are underrepresented in graduate education.

Races listed as "underrepresented" are black, Hispanic, Alaskan Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander.

'Why are we continuing to separate and divide students?'

Those McNair scholars whose dermal pigmentation and ethnicity are to the satisfaction of the Democratic administration can apparently receive an internship stipend worth thousands of dollars along with mentorship and other academic opportunities.

"The McNair Program's racial eligibility requirements are unconstitutional," said the lawsuit. "By using 'race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens,' the McNair Program violates the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection."

The two individual plaintiffs named in the suit are Avery Durfee, a white female student at the University of North Dakota, and Benjamin Rothhove, a white male student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both of whom allegedly discovered they were ineligible for the program on the basis of their race.

Durfee said in a statement, "I've worked unbelievably hard throughout my undergraduate career and have wanted to go to graduate school my entire life. Being told that I didn't qualify for the McNair program because I'm white seemed completely wrong. This sends the wrong message to young Americans everywhere."

Rothove noted that he was devastated to learn he was ineligible for the program because of his race.

"This is the 21st century," said Rothhove. "Why are we continuing to separate and divide students?"

This suit, like other recent legal actions targeting similar racist, federally linked initiatives, cites the U.S. Supreme Court's June 29, 2023, ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC banning race-based college admissions.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts noted, "The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race."

"Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin," continued Roberts. "Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice."

WILL's lawsuit specifically accuses the Biden-Harris DOE of violating the equal protection guarantee under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.

"Denying a student the chance to compete for a scholarship based on their skin color is not only discriminatory but also demeaning and unconstitutional," YAF president Scott Walker said in a statement. "At YAF, we proudly defend our students' right to be judged on their merit and abilities, not on race."

Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at WILL — a conservative law firm that has been taking the Biden-Harris administration to task for years over its discriminatory programming — said, "WILL continues its march through Biden-Harris radical DEI programs."

"We have already heard that the administration knows they can't win in court, and so, one by one, we will terminate these discriminatory, taxpayer-funded efforts," added Lennington.

This is not the first time that the McNair program has been dragged over its race-based criteria.

Last year, the Legal Insurrection Foundation's Equal Protection Project filed a civil rights complaint with the DOE's Office of Civil Rights over the McNair program's implementation at the University of Colorado.

"We bring this civil rights complaint … for supporting and promoting a scholarship program that engages in invidious discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin," said the complaint.

According to the the Equal Protection Project, the McNair program is funded by federal dollars and is therefore subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. As a result, it is prohibited from intentionally discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

WILL's lawsuit also comes amidst a broader societal campaign to kneecap discriminatory corporate policies, particularly those executed in the name of DEI.

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