Cases & Developments - National Association of College and University Attorneys

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Latest Cases & Developments

Date:
4/10/2025
U.S. Department of Education 2025-26 Final Funding Authorization for the Campus-Based Programs (Apr. 10, 2025)
U.S. Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid announced the final funding worksheets for the 2025-26 Statement of Account for Campus-Based programs are available on the COD website. The announcement details the total federal funds appropriated for allocation to schools, as well as a review of how the Campus-Based Awards for a School are determined, noting that underutilization of 2023-24 funds could impact a school’s allocation of 2025-26 funds. The announcement also states that individual schools will be notified by email that the 2025-26 Campus-Based allocation information was posted to the COD website. Finally, the announcement notes that some schools may qualify for supplemental 2025-26 Campus-Based funds based upon a reallocation of funds not spent by institutions from 2024-25 allocations and specific information on reallocation will be provided in subsequent communications.
Topics:
Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
4/9/2025
Department of Homeland Security to Begin Screening Noncitizen Social Media Activity for Antisemitism (Apr. 9, 2025)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin considering alleged antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying noncitizen immigration benefit requests. It stated that the review of social media activity is immediate and will impact noncitizens applying for lawful permanent resident status, as well as foreign students and noncitizens affiliated with educational institutions linked to allegedly antisemitic activity. Under this guidance, USCIS will consider social media content that indicates a noncitizen endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic (1) terrorism, (2) terrorist organizations, or other (3) activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests.
Topics:
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) | Employment of Foreign Nationals | Faculty & Staff | Immigration | International Students
Date:
4/9/2025
Bedi v. The United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce (N.D. Ill. E.D. Apr. 9, 2025)
Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief. Plaintiffs, Shelia Bedi and Lyn Cohn, two faculty members at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law (Pritzker), allege that defendants, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce (the Committee), Tim Walberg, Burgess Owens, Northwestern University, Michael Schill, and Peter Barris acted beyond their lawful authority and violated plaintiffs’ rights protected by the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiffs sue following defendants’ demand that Pritzker and its Bluhm Legal Clinic produce information about how they teach their students, represent their clients, and fund their work following allegations that some of plaintiffs’ clients have engaged in “Antisemitic conduct.” Plaintiffs allege that this effort is part of the federal government’s ongoing attack on academic freedom, legal professionals, and the rule of law. Plaintiffs further allege that defendants’ demands exceed their authority and have no valid legislative purpose, and they are an attempt to investigate, intimidate, and punish institutions and individuals that defendants have deemed “left-wing.” Plaintiffs specifically allege that defendants have violated their Rights to Free Speech, Freedom of Association, to Petition for Redress of Grievances, Academic Freedom, Fifth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection, Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, and have retaliated against plaintiffs. Plaintiffs ask that the court immediately and preliminarily enjoin defendants from producing and obtaining any documents demanded in the Committee’s demand letter, declare that the demands are unconstitutional and violate the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Topics:
Academic Freedom & Employee Speech | Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Faculty & Staff | First Amendment & Free Speech | Race and National Origin Discrimination
Date:
4/8/2025
U.S. Department of Education Comment Request; Income Driven Repayment Plan Request for Federal Direct Loans and Federal Family Education Loan Programs (Apr. 8, 2025)
U.S. Department of Education (the Department) issued a comment request regarding income driven repayment plans for federal direct loans and the federal family education loan programs. The Department requested an emergency clearance for this revision of the information collection and asked that the full clearance package be filed at the same time, and noted that the Department will initiate a 60-day public comment period upon notification of emergency approval. The Department will update the IDR Request Form that is used by a borrower to enroll, recertify, or change their IDR plan to support the provisions identified by the court injunction issued February 18, 2025. Specifically, the form is being updated to remove the SAVE plan as an option for borrowers to select and remove the other early-implemented components of the Final Rule that applies to the other IDR plans and additional updates to improve clarity and the borrower experience.
Topics:
Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
4/7/2025
American Library Association v. Keith Sonderling (D.D.C. Apr. 7, 2025)
Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief. Plaintiffs, the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees brought this suit against Keith Sonderling, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Donald Trump, Amy Gleason, U.S. DOGE Service, Russel Vought, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget seeking declaratory and injunctive relief following defendants’ alleged actions to dismantle the Institute for Museum Library Services (IMLS). Plaintiffs allege that Executive Order 13238, “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” called for the elimination of the IMLS, and following the issuance of the order, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted the agency. Plaintiffs allege that defendants’ actions are ultra vires and violate separation of powers, the Take Care Clause, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and the First Amendment. Plaintiffs request that the Court declare unlawful and set aside the decision to shut down IMLS, and declare defendants’ actions arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. Plaintiffs further request that the Court issue a preliminary injunction directing defendants to immediately cease actions to shut down IMLS’s operations, return IMLS and its employees, restore funding, order defendants to cease violating plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by imposing an allegedly unconstitutional condition on obtaining IMLS grants, and issue a permanent injunction barring any action to dissolve IMLS absent Congressional authorization.
Topics:
Contracts | Grants, Contracts, & Sponsored Research
Date:
4/7/2025
ACE Letter Requesting Implementation of 2025 Continuing Resolution (Apr. 7, 2025)
The American Council on Education (ACE) sent a letter (the Letter) to the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department) Secretary Linda McMahon requesting that the Department implement the fiscal year (FY) 2025 continuing resolution, which includes funding levels for the federal student aid programs and other Higher Education Act programs, at the FY 2024 funding levels as intended by Congress. The Letter also requests that the Department formally confirm that all higher education programs be funded at FY 2024 levels. The Letter details that institutions are already underway in developing their aid packages for the 2025-26 award year and have been operating under the assumption that they would have access to the same level of federal grant funding as in FY 2024; changing course this far in the fiscal year would substantially impair the ability of institutions to provide the needed program support.
Topics:
Contracts | Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Grants, Contracts, & Sponsored Research | Students
Date:
4/5/2025
Colorado v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (D.R.I. Apr. 5, 2025)
Temporary Restraining Order Granted. Plaintiffs, the States of Colorado, Rhode Island, California, Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia requested an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) following the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) terminating $11 billion of public health funding on March 24, 2025. Plaintiffs allege that if funding is not restored, key public health programs and initiatives that address ongoing and emerging public health needs within the plaintiff jurisdictions will have to be dissolved or disbanded, resulting in serious harm to public health. Plaintiffs allege that defendants’ abrupt termination of funding was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and contrary to law as defendants unlawfully applied “for cause” provision to terminate the grants since the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) does not authorize the end of the pandemic as a ground for termination and none of the appropriations at issue were scheduled to terminate at the conclusion of the pandemic. Plaintiffs allege all public health terminations are in violation of APA as they are arbitrary and capricious by way of failing to undertake any individualized assessments of the grants and ignoring the substantial reliance interests of plaintiff states and the harmful impact of immediately terminating without any advance warning, as well as having departed significantly from the normal procedures for issuance of the public health terminations. Finding favor of plaintiffs, the Court granted the TRO and restrained defendants from implementing or enforcing funding terminations that were issued to plaintiffs on or after March 24, 2025.
Topics:
Contracts | Grants, Contracts, & Sponsored Research
Date:
4/4/2025
U.S. House of Representatives introduce the Tax-Free Pell Grant Act (Apr. 4, 2025)
The U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Tax-Free Pell Grant Act. The legislation – which is expected to pass – would shield community college students from paying taxes on portions of their Pell Grant that can go toward books and living expenses and enable some students to qualify for the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
Topics:
Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
4/4/2025
U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Create Title IX Special Investigations Team (Apr. 4, 2025)
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the creation of the Title IX Special Investigations Team (SIT) to ensure timely, consistent resolutions to protect students, “and especially female athletes, from the pernicious effect of gender ideology in school programs and activities.” The Title IX SIT includes: (1) ED Office for Civil Rights investigators and attorneys; (2) DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys; (3) ED Office of General Counsel attorneys; and (4) ED Student Privacy and Protection Office case workers and an FSA Enforcement investigator. SIT is responsive to Executive Orders “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” and “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism.”
Topics:
Athletics & Sports | Gender Equity in Athletics | Students | Title IX & Student Sexual Misconduct
Date:
4/4/2025
U.S. Department of Education Request for Comments on Accrediting Agencies (Apr. 4, 2025)
The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) issued a request for comments concerning the performance of accrediting agencies under review by the Secretary of Education. The agencies included in the application for renewal of recognition include: (1) the American Bar Association, Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; (2) Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools; (3) Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine; (4) American Osteopathic Association, Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation; (5) American Psychological Association, Commission on Accreditation; (6) Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools; (7) Council on Occupational Education; (8) National Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Training Consortium; (9) Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges; and (10) Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, Accreditation Commission. Written comments must be submitted by May 8, 2025.
Topics:
Accreditation | Accreditation, Authorizations, & Higher Education Act

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