A Trump-appointed judge in Baltimore on Thursday blocked the Education Department from withholding billions of dollars in federal funding from public schools that continue to practice diversity inclusion initiatives — delivering a significant blow to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI initiatives, though it is almost certain to be appealed to higher courts for review.

At issue were two Education Department memos issued earlier this year that threatened to withhold combined billions of dollars of funding from schools who failed to wind down their DEI programs, a key issue for the department in Trump’s second term. Those efforts sparked a flurry of federal lawsuits and requests for emergency relief earlier this year. 

In a sharp, 76-page ruling  Thursday, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said that that the Trump administration’s efforts to slash funding from educational institutions that kept in place with DEI initiatives ran afoul of the Administrative Procedures Act, and risked threatening free speech protections under the First Amendment.

“The administration is entitled to express its viewpoints and to promulgate policies aligned with those viewpoints,” Gallagher said. “But it must do so within the procedural bounds Congress has outlined. And it may not do so at the expense of constitutional rights.” 

A Department of Education sign is displayed outside their federal student aid office on May 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

A statement from the Education Department on Thursday said it was disappointed in the ruling but that “judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level.” 

In April, a federal judge in New Hampshire already blocked the Trump administration from cutting funding to public schools that maintain diversity programs. 

The U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, D.C.  (J. David Ake/Getty Images)

U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty said at the time that the effort by Trump’s Education Department to block federal funding to public schools that continue to promote DEI programs likely violates the First Amendment, presenting what she described as “textbook viewpoint discrimination.”