The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel determined that three National Science Foundation (NSF) STEM programs are unconstitutional due to their race- and sex-based criteria. The programs affected are the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program, and the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program. The DOJ's opinion, which is legal advice rather than a court ruling, advises the NSF not to continue administering these programs in their current form.
NSF spokesman Michael England did not comment on potential actions following the DOJ's finding. The opinion states that the NSF cannot reallocate the funding appropriated by Congress for these programs, which amounts to approximately $104 million out of the NSF's total $938 million STEM education fund.
Two other programs, Advanced Technological Education and the Advance Program, may continue if they remove the unconstitutional elements. The remaining four programs reviewed were found constitutional, including the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program. The opinion also mandates that three programs must be administered without considering race or sex.
The DOJ's review was requested by the NSF to assess whether nine programs violated equal-protection principles. The opinion cites the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended the consideration of race in college admissions, as a basis for its conclusions. Rep. George Whitesides criticized the DOJ's opinion, stating it undermines equal opportunity in the STEM workforce.