Non-compliance with injunction in NADOHE v. Trump, 1:25-cv-333-ABA (D.Md.)

We are writing further to our conversations in February, our email from March 11, as well as your response today (March 13). In your latest response, you indicated that DOJ has purportedly “taken appropriate steps to inform non-defendant entities of [the Order’s] scope,” and that sharing any notices or details with us “is neither necessary nor appropriate.”

But recent reports reveal that federal agencies are in escalating and widespread disregard of the Court’s Order.2 We intend to request an emergency status conference with the Court in short order. Please inform us of your position no later than 4pm ET on March 13, 2025.

Several concerning actions are listed below, relating largely to events post-dating the Court’s clarification order. We bring these instances to your attention as notice of violations of the Preliminary Injunction, which suggest that the Government’s counsel have not taken appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the Preliminary Injunction. It appears that agencies have not not fully reinstated grants and contracts that were wrongly terminated or frozen from January 20 onwards, have not communicated the removal of any certification requirements to counterparties, and have not communicated the end of any threat of enforcement stemming from the Enjoined Provisions to targets of enforcement. 

If any agency has cancelled, frozen, or altered grants or contracts, required certifications, or threatened investigation on the basis that grantees or contractors (or subcontractors or subgrantees) supported, promoted, advanced were involved in, had grants/contracts related to “DEI,” “DEIA,” or environmental justice ideas—whether termed “illegal” or in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws or not—please immediately ensure all such agency actions are reversed forthwith.

Sincerely,
Counsel for Plaintiffs
Democracy Forward Foundation
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC