Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) has filed a lawsuit against the Biden-Harris administration, accusing it of racial discrimination in a federal scholarship program. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) filed the lawsuit on behalf of two students and YAF’s University of North Dakota chapter, targeting the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.
The McNair Program, which supports approximately 6,000 students annually with $60 million in federal funds, is accused of giving preferential treatment to specific racial groups, including black, Hispanic, Alaskan Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students. The lawsuit claims that Caucasians, Asians, Jews, and Arabs are unfairly excluded from the program unless they meet certain low-income criteria.
The individual plaintiffs, Avery Durfee and Benjamin Rothhove, are both white students who allegedly found themselves ineligible for the McNair Program because of their race. Durfee expressed her disappointment, saying, “Being told that I didn’t qualify for the McNair program because I’m white seemed completely wrong.” Rothhove echoed these concerns, questioning why students are still being divided by race in modern America.
The lawsuit cites the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC, which ruled against race-based college admissions. YAF and WILL argue that the McNair Program’s racial eligibility criteria are unconstitutional, violating the equal protection guarantee under the Fifth Amendment.
As WILL continues to challenge the Biden administration’s DEI initiatives, this lawsuit represents a broader effort to end race-based discrimination in federally funded programs.
