Trump Justice Department launches investigations, lawsuits with school districts

The Trump Justice Department on Wednesday launched an investigation into three Michigan public school districts over gender-related classroom instruction and sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles against a race-based admissions and funding program; This intensified the administration’s school policy disagreements across the country.

The Civil Rights Division said it was reviewing whether Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools and Lansing School District contained “sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any classrooms for grades pre-K-12.”

If such an order is issued, inspectors would consider whether parents were informed of their right to exclude their children and whether districts “limited access to single-sex private spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex.”

Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department is focused on enforcing parental rights and Title IX.

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“This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the trend of local school officials to embed sexuality and gender ideology into every aspect of public education,” Dhillon said.

“The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence is clear: parents have the right to direct their children’s religious education,” he added, including exempting them from education that conflicts with their faith.

Dhillon also said Title IX requires “protecting the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens by ensuring they have unrestricted access to the bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.”

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The Department of Justice announced actions Wednesday involving three Michigan school districts and the Los Angeles Unified School District. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The department said Michigan districts received “hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds,” and said investigators relied on Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor said they would evaluate compliance with the decision. Officials emphasized that the Office of Civil Rights “did not reach any conclusions regarding the subject matter of the investigations.”

In a separate case, the Justice Department said it wanted to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit 1776 Project Foundation against the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other (PHBAO) Program.

According to the department’s proposed complaint, the program classifies students by race and neighborhood demographics for funding and school admissions, and separates students into “Anglo,” meaning White, and other racial categories. Neighborhoods with less than 30% white residents are designated as disadvantaged, and some schools are given additional funding, reducing the student-teacher ratio to 5.5 students and providing magnet admissions preferences.

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AG Pam Bondi said in the Department of Justice’s statement on the issue that “treating Americans equally is not a recommendation.” (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The complaint states that LAUSD considers attending a school with non-White students “a disadvantage equivalent to attending an overcrowded school.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the federal government intervened to enforce equal protection guarantees.

“Treating Americans equally is not a proposition; it is a fundamental constitutional guarantee that educational institutions must abide by,” Bondi said.

Dhillon said students “should never be classified or treated differently because of their race,” adding, “Racial discrimination is illegal and un-American.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said LAUSD’s desegregation program “has become so obsolete that it is unconstitutional.”

Michigan investigations are ongoing and the LAUSD case is pending in federal court.

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Representatives of the Michigan counties did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

“As this matter involves ongoing litigation, we are unable to comment on specifics,” LAUSD said in a statement. he said. “However, Los Angeles Unified remains steadfastly committed to ensuring that all students have meaningful access to services and enriched educational opportunities.”