The Biden-Harris administration is facing a federal lawsuit from the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) organization, which claims that a nationwide scholarship program discriminates against students based on race.

Filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) on behalf of two students and YAF’s University of North Dakota chapter, the lawsuit targets the $60 million Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, which allegedly gives preferential treatment to certain racial groups while excluding others.

The McNair Program, designed to support approximately 6,000 students annually, is accused of prioritizing black, Hispanic, Alaskan Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students over Caucasian, Asian, Jewish, and Arab students. The lawsuit, which names the Department of Education (DOE) and Secretary Miguel Cardona as defendants, argues that this race-based eligibility violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

Avery Durfee, a white student from the University of North Dakota, and Benjamin Rothhove, a white student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are the individual plaintiffs in the case. Both students discovered they were ineligible for the McNair Program solely because of their race. “Being told that I didn’t qualify for the McNair program because I’m white seemed completely wrong,” Durfee stated. Rothhove echoed these sentiments, questioning why students are still being divided by race in the 21st century.

The lawsuit draws on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC, which banned race-based college admissions. The case challenges the Biden administration’s DEI initiatives and seeks to end what YAF President Scott Walker describes as “discriminatory, taxpayer-funded efforts.”