Wisconsin nonprofit sues Biden Administration over race-based scholarship program

There is another lawsuit over another race-based program from the Biden Administration with a Wisconsin tie.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program.

The McNair Program is a $60 million scholarship program open only to certain minority students.

“The government says that these groups are underrepresented. That may be, but that doesn’t give the government a right to discriminate against our clients and other students on the basis of race. Any attempt to balance the races – or create equal outcomes – is a dangerous and illegal policy,” WILL attorney Dan Lennington told The Center Square.

WILL is representing Young Americans for Freedom, a college-based program that teaches conservative values and thoughts. Its president is former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

“Denying a student the chance to compete for a scholarship based on their skin color is not only discriminatory but also demeaning and unconstitutional,” Walker said.

WILL’s suit claims Asian students, white students, Arab students, Jewish students and some Latino students are blocked from applying to the McNair program.

“Students excluded are being taught that their race is a negative, and that their government doesn’t value them as individuals,” Lennington added. “That’s an offensive and bigoted belief, and it harms the individual dignity of each student. All Americans have a right to be treated equally, and policymakers should never victimize Americans who they believe are ‘overrepresented.’.”

WILL has become one of the leaders in pushing-back against race-based programs at both the state and federal level.

“Race-based programs, whether called DEI or affirmative action, are pervasive in American society. They won’t go away by themselves -- we must root them out one at a time. Our goal is complete racial neutrality, and we won’t stop until America is truly a colorblind society,” Lennington said. “This is our 12th lawsuit against the Biden-Harris Administration. In our Equality Under the Law Project, which kicked off in 2021, we’ve represented 62 clients from 23 states. We handled 16 lawsuits so far and about two dozen other matters involving race discrimination.”

The Department of Education said the McNair program is designed to boost the number of low-income and minority students who are looking to get doctoral degrees. The department says students qualify if they are low-income, first-generation college students or are part of a “group that is underrepresented in graduate education."