A note sent to Georgetown Law Center by interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, declared it “unacceptable” that the school “continues to teach and promote DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion].” Martin demanded the school eliminate “all DEI” from its curriculum and asked, “If DEI is found in your courses or teaching in any way, will you move swiftly to remove it?”

Martin then issued a direct threat: “No applicant for our fellows program, our summer internship, or employment in our office who is a student or affiliated with a law school or university that continues to teach and utilize DEI will be considered.” The letter did not define what counted as DEI in a curriculum.

Related

As Donald Trump sows chaos, even his most loyal followers are speaking out against him
“Something is afoot,” one conservative commentator noted.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“I’ve rarely read a more unconstitutional letter,” opined New York Times writer David French. “Even a first-year law student knows that the federal government cannot dictate the viewpoint and curriculum of a private Christian school, yet here was a federal prosecutor opening an inquiry into a Jesuit school’s protected speech.”

The dean of Georgetown Law, William Treanor, did not hold back in his reply to the letter, calling the threat unconstitutional and “unacceptable.”

“Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it,” Treanor wrote, “the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution.”

Treanor wrote that the First Amendment “guarantees that the government cannot direct what Georgetown and its faculty teach and how to teach it.”

“The Supreme Court has continually affirmed that among the freedoms central to a university’s First Amendment rights are its abilities to determine, on academic grounds, who may teach, what to teach, and how to teach it. This is a bedrock principle of constitutional law.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was gobsmacked by the threat. “These are the same people like that have constantly said, ‘How can you interfere on a Catholic institution’s ability to do what they’re guided by their moral conscience to do?'” he said, repeatedly calling it “unbelievable.”

French also pointed out this big hypocrisy of the Trump administration: “For all of Trump’s talk about rooting out ‘anti-Christian bias’ from the United States, one of his administration’s first executive actions violated the free speech and religious freedom rights of several Christian congregations.”

“It turns out that Trump wants to protect only his Christian allies from government reprisals,” he continued. “Dissenting believers will face his wrath and the wrath of the state.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.