The San Francisco Unified School District won a court order blocking the federal agency AmeriCorps from requiring grant recipients to comply with President Donald Trump‘s anti-DEI executive orders.
Judge Edward M. Chen on Monday granted the school district’s request for a temporary restraining order prohibiting AmeriCorps from freezing funding for social programs based on their compliance with Trump’s orders attacking DEI and gender ideology activities.
The school district, which sued AmeriCorps alongside the city of Santa Fe, N.M., showed that it will face irreparable harm from the Trump administration’s threat of revoking funding for failure to comply. The district and city also showed that AmeriCorps’ new grant conditions likely violate the Constitution’s Spending Clause because they are too vague, Chen said.
The lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California alleged that AmeriCorps, which funds public service projects around the country, directed grant recipients to stop all “activities that promote DEI,” gender ideology, and environmental issues.
The agency’s directive asks grantees to either self-certify compliance with four of Trump’s executive orders, amend their activities to be in compliance, or relinquish the funds.
The new conditions force plaintiffs with the “choice of cutting certain services to minimize the risk of being found in non-compliance or continuing to provide current services and programs and run the substantial risk of losing all funding,” Chen said.
“The fact remains that having to decide between two losing options constitutes irreparable injury,” the judge said.
San Francisco schools’ Healthy Choices Program that provides mentoring services to vulnerable students could lose half of its entire budget if AmeriCorps pulls funding, Chen said.
Santa Fe’s Foster Grandparent Program supporting child mentoring and elder care said it was unsure if it could exist under the grant conditions because it service children of racially diverse and economically disadvantaged communities, the judge said.
The San Francisco City Attorney’s office and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP represents the school district. Public Rights Project represents Santa Fe. The US Department of Justice represents AmeriCorps.
The case is San Francisco Unified Sch. Dist. v. AmeriCorps, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-02425, 3/31/25.
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