Trump-aligned legal group targets Johns Hopkins DEI practices

Mathew Schumer, The Baltimore Sun on Jul 17, 2025

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A Trump-aligned legal group is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what it claims are “illegal DEI practices” at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

America First Legal, founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in 2021, filed a complaint Thursday demanding the DOJ investigate the university for “systemic, intentional, and ongoing discrimination” through its diversity, equity and inclusion admissions and hiring practices.

“Medicine cannot function when ideology is substituted for merit,” reads the complaint. “The consequences are real, and they are measured in lives.”

The organization cites its own investigation that alleges several programs, offices and committees at Hopkins discriminate on the basis of race, sex and ethnicity.

The organization asked the DOJ to dismantle these offices, and to audit funding received by the university that may support “DEI-related programs, positions, and initiatives.”

In January, the organization sent a letter to over 250 leaders of sanctuary cities, including Baltimore, demanding that they comply with federal immigration law. But Mayor Brandon Scott has maintained that Baltimore is not a sanctuary city.

Hopkins has already been under the federal government’s scrutiny after being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for facilitating a hostile environment for Jewish students.

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