Watchdog: DOJ Dropped School Cases Before Discrimination Ended

WHO:

CBS News Politics - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and schools involved in school-discrimination cases.

Truthout - Trump’s Justice Department and a former agency official, whose name and title are not provided.

WHAT:

CBS News Politics - In at least 18 cases, the Justice Department supported dismissing school-discrimination cases without first asking the federal court overseeing each case to determine whether the school had ended its discriminatory practices.

Truthout - Trump’s Justice Department abandoned civil-rights and school-desegregation cases.

Truthout - A former agency official said, “Walking away from them doesn’t mean the discrimination has been addressed.”

WHERE:

CBS News Politics - The cases were overseen by federal courts; the article does not identify locations.

Truthout - The article concerns school-desegregation cases; it does not identify locations.

WHY:

Truthout - The former agency official’s quoted statement says that abandoning cases does not establish that discrimination has been addressed.

HOW:

CBS News Politics - The DOJ supported case dismissals without first asking the federal court overseeing a case to determine whether the school had ended discriminatory practices.

(UPDATED October 22, 2026 22:14 UTC)

Trump’s Justice Department has abandoned civil-rights and school-desegregation cases, supporting dismissal in at least 18 school-discrimination cases without first asking the federal judge overseeing each one to determine whether the school had ended its discriminatory practices. The cases were handled in federal courts, but the locations have not been identified. That approach means the cases could be dismissed without a court first establishing whether the discrimination had stopped. A former agency official warned that dropping the cases is not proof that schools have addressed the underlying discrimination. “Walking away from them doesn’t mean the discrimination has been addressed,” the official said. The cases concern alleged discrimination in schools and efforts to enforce civil rights and desegregation requirements. The Justice Department’s support for dismissal marks a withdrawal from those cases, while leaving the question of whether discriminatory practices ended unresolved by the courts.