The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has accused Minneapolis Public Schools of imposing race-, sex-, and national origin-based preferences in hiring, layoffs, reassignments, and reinstatements in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, targets the district's Board of Directors, Special School District No. 1, and Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams.
The complaint says that since July 2021, the district has enforced collective bargaining provisions that intentionally favor "underrepresented" teachers — defined as Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) — over white and Asian teachers.
"Employers may not provide more favorable terms and conditions of employment based on an employee's race and sex," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
"The Department of Justice will vigorously pursue employers who deny their employees equal opportunities and benefits by classifying and limiting them based on their race, color, national origin, or sex."
According to the lawsuit, the 2021-23 and 2023-25 collective bargaining agreements required Minneapolis administrators to override standard seniority rules during layoffs and involuntary reassignments when a teacher was deemed "underrepresented."
In those cases, district officials were instructed to skip the protected teacher and instead excess or reassign a "non-underrepresented" teacher with more seniority.
The same provisions required the district to prioritize "underrepresented" staff for reinstatement ahead of more senior teachers, using racial and ethnic classifications to determine order of return.
DOJ attorneys argued these mandates constitute explicit discrimination based on protected characteristics.
Prosecutors also cited districtwide diversity targets, alleging Minneapolis Public Schools sought to increase its "BIPOC staffing ... to at least 40% by 2026" and set a goal that "54.3%" of new teacher hires by 2026-27 would identify as BIPOC.
The lawsuit also claims the district gave members of a third-party program called "Black Men Teach Fellows" hiring preferences, layoff exemptions, and extra paid professional development days not available to female or non-Black teachers.
"Discrimination is unacceptable in all forms, especially when it comes to hiring decisions," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
"Our public education system in Minnesota and across the country must be a bastion of merit and equal opportunity — not DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion]."
The Justice Department is asking the court to declare the collective bargaining agreement unlawful, permanently block Minneapolis Public Schools from enforcing its race- and sex-based provisions, and prohibit the district from adopting similar terms in future agreements.
Minneapolis is currently operating under an extended 2023-25 deal while negotiations for a new contract remain unresolved.
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," the complaint quotes from a 2007 Supreme Court decision that struck down a Seattle school assignment plan for using race to allocate students.
A spokesperson for Minneapolis Public Schools told Newsmax that "MPS does not comment on pending litigation."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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