{"id":9502,"date":"2026-01-13T08:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/doj-announces-establishment-of-a-civil-rights-fraud-initiative-that-will-aggressively-use-the-false-claims-act-to-address-anti-semitism-and-divisive-dei-policies\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:44:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:44:05","slug":"doj-announces-establishment-of-a-civil-rights-fraud-initiative-that-will-aggressively-use-the-false-claims-act-to-address-anti-semitism-and-divisive-dei-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/doj-announces-establishment-of-a-civil-rights-fraud-initiative-that-will-aggressively-use-the-false-claims-act-to-address-anti-semitism-and-divisive-dei-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Announces Establishment of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative That Will Aggressively Use the False Claims Act to Address Anti-Semitism and \u201cDivisive\u201d DEI Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (\u201cDOJ\u201d) released a memorandum announcing the establishment of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative that will \u201cvigorous[ly]\u201d enforce the False Claims Act (\u201cFCA\u201d) against federal fund recipients that knowingly violate the civil rights laws by allowing antisemitism or promoting \u201cdivisive DEI policies.\u201d The memorandum also strongly encourages whistleblowers to file claims under the FCA against federal contractors that are believed to have engaged in civil rights violations, or to report that information to federal authorities.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

As we previously discussed, one of President Trump\u2019s first Executive Orders on January 21, 2025 included a requirement that federal contracts include terms (i) \u201crequiring the contractual counterparty\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0to agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the government\u2019s payment decisions\u201d; and (ii) \u201crequiring such counterparty\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0to certify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

On May 19, 2025, a DOJ memorandum<\/a> announced the creation of a \u201cCivil Rights Fraud Initiative,\u201d under the umbrella of the Civil Division\u2019s Fraud Section. The Initiative will \u201cinvestigate and, as appropriate, pursue claims against any recipient of federal funds that knowingly violates federal civil rights laws\u201d in cooperation with the Criminal Division, other state and federal agencies, and attorneys from each of the 93 United States Attorneys\u2019 Offices.<\/p>\n

The memorandum explains that the FCA will be \u201cimplicated when a federal contractor or recipient of federal funds knowingly violates civil rights laws\u2014including but not limited to Title IV, Title VI, and Title IX, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964\u2014and falsely certifies compliance with such laws.\u201d The memorandum states that such violations are implicated where an institution \u00a0\u201cknowingly engag[es] in racist preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities, including through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that assign benefits or burdens on race, ethnicity, or national origin,\u201d including where \u201ccorporations and schools continue to adhere to racist policies and preferences\u2014albeit camouflaged with cosmetic changes that disguise their discriminatory nature.\u201d The memorandum further states that \u201ca university that accepts federal funds could violate the FCA when it encourages antisemitism, refuses to protect Jewish students, allows men to intrude into women\u2019s bathrooms, or requires women to compete against men in athletic competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memorandum also \u201cstrongly encourages\u201d private civil actions to enforce the FCA in this area. Liability under the FCA can include civil monetary penalties of up to $27,894 plus triple the amount of any damages sustained by the government. The memorandum also encourages individuals with knowledge of information of civil rights violations to report that information to the appropriate federal authorities so that the DOJ may take appropriate action.<\/p>\n

Employers should continue to closely monitor the changing political and legal landscape in this area.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (\u201cDOJ\u201d) released a memorandum announcing the establishment of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative that will \u201cvigorous[ly]\u201d enforce the False […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[911,4736,7312,1444,2411,2137,300,134,7313,1343,7311,1880,643,6340,4612,408],"class_list":["post-9502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-act","tag-address","tag-aggressively","tag-announces","tag-antisemitism","tag-civil","tag-claims","tag-dei","tag-divisive","tag-doj","tag-establishment","tag-false","tag-fraud","tag-initiative","tag-policies","tag-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9603,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions\/9603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}