US attorney tells Georgetown law he won’t hire from any school with DEI

A Donald Trump-appointed US attorney has told one of the country’s top law schools to immediately end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, warning that his justice department office will not hire students or other affiliates associated with a university that utilizes DEI.

In an extraordinary letter sent to the dean of Georgetown law school, the recently appointed interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, said he was investigating the academic institution after it had come to his “attention reliably” that they were teaching and promoting DEI.

“This is unacceptable,” wrote Martin, in a letter re-sent this week after the original sent in February was misaddressed, according to the Washington Post.

“At this time, you should know that 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 was reportedly addressed to William M Treanor, a constitutional law scholar and one of the nation’s longest-serving deans.

Martin, a conservative activist with no prosecutorial experience who has been nominated to take control of the DC office permanently, put two questions to dean Treanor: “First, have you eliminated all DEI from your school and its curriculum? Second, if DEI is found in your courses or teaching in any way, will you move swiftly to remove it?”

Martin’s letter was first reported and posted by the Post Millennial, a rightwing website.

The move was condemned by legal commentators.

“Federal prosecutors don’t control the classroom. This is a dark abdication of the first amendment,” said Adam Steinbaugh, a first amendment lawyer at the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), on the social media platform Bluesky.

This is the latest attack by the Trump administration on diversity, equity and inclusion practices which proliferated as part of the nation’s reckoning triggered by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The White House campaign against tackling systemic and structural inequalities in US society have so far led to outright bans on agencies, academic institutions and private businesses – some of which are being challenged in the courts. In one case, a federal judge has temporarily halted enforcement against large universities and publicly traded companies from a Trump executive order canceling federal contracts that include components of DEI.

In a statement, a Georgetown spokesperson said that the university’s practices were constitutionally protected and that the university complied with all federal and local regulation: “As a Catholic and Jesuit university, Georgetown was founded on the principle that serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical, and spiritual understanding.”

The statement continued: “The letter inquires about Georgetown’s curriculum and classroom teaching, which is protected by the First Amendment. Restricting or suppressing legally protected speech would contradict the First Amendment, contravene the University’s mission, and undermine the educational experience that prepares students to navigate an increasingly complex world.”

It is unclear whether Martin has written to other academic institutions and what precisely he means by promoting and teaching DEI. It is also unclear whether this includes courses on anti-discrimination legislation.

In February, NBC News reported that Martin demoted at least seven top prosecutors – including some involved in January 6 prosecutions – to entry-level positions.

Established in 1789 and located in the capital, Georgetown is the country’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, a private research institution with the largest law school, with over 2,000 students. Famous alumni include the supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia, the former US attorney general Eric Holder, and the former FBI director Robert Mueller, as well as Dick Cheney, Greta Van Susteren, Linda R Greenstein and Jerome Powell.