Free Republic

Gov. Josh Stein vetoed a slew of anti-Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) bills and a gender bill on Thursday but signed a licensure agreement bill and one that protects parents and caregivers from legal consequences for raising children in alignment with their biological sex. Among the bills he vetoed was SB 558, Eliminating “DEI” in Public Higher Ed. The legislation prohibits UNC System schools and community colleges from promoting discriminatory policies and practices. Under the measure, public colleges and universities would be required to eliminate offices and staff dedicated to DEI initiatives. The bill prohibits promoting “divisive concepts,” such as...

In recent decades, academia has created or implemented a truly jaw-dropping array of programs and ideas. And not in a good way. Whether “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) policies or Annual Sex Week, these new notions all seem aimed at chipping away at the foundations of a society based on common-sense, truth, fairness, and morality. One such idea is the “land acknowledgment.” It is a statement that a particular event or organization is located on land that once belonged to specific indigenous tribes. Land acknowledgments first appeared in Australia in the late 1970s. They were adopted in Canada before coming...

America First Legal, a conservative legal organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, along with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the L.A. Dodgers and Guggenheim Partners. The complaint alleges that both entities engage in racially and sexually discriminatory hiring practices under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion. Guggenheim Partners is an investment firm led by Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter. In a June 30 letter addressed to Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, the America First Legal Foundation accused the Dodgers and the investment firm of violating...

"We will get this sicko out," DHS said after convicted sex offender Wilson Tindi was exposed for holding a top job in the state's education agency. The story of Wilson Tindi, a convicted sex offender and Kenyan national who rose to a leadership position in Minnesota’s Department of Education, has now caught the attention of federal immigration authorities. After Alpha News broke the story on Monday, it exploded online, racking up millions of views, tens of thousands of shares, and drawing national outrage. State legislators and major conservative accounts like Libs of TikTok reposted the story, putting pressure on officials...

Memo offers a snapshot of how personal statements can be used to skirt affirmative action ban... At the end of finals period each May, the Duke Law Journal hosts a two-week-long competition to select its next crop of editors. Applicants write a 12-page memo, or casenote, analyzing an appellate court decision, as well as a 500-word essay about what they would "contribute" to the journal. Students are chosen based on their grades, casenotes, and personal statements. Less than 20 percent of the class makes it onto the law review, which is overseen by Duke Law School and has no legal...

The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to reshape higher education.The president of the University of Virginia is resigning his position under pressure from the Justice Department, which had pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in...

200 California bar exam takers have had their failing scores adjusted to “pass.” ... In 2025, American students from kindergarten through law school are dumber than they’ve ever been, and we needn’t look beyond the nation’s abysmal math and English literacy NAEP scores to prove it. In 2025, American students from kindergarten through law school are dumber than they’ve ever been, and we needn’t look beyond the nation’s abysmal math and English literacy NAEP scores to prove it. Now, more than 200 California bar exam takers have had their failing scores adjusted to “pass,” indicating that the newest crop of...

As the policy director for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), I’ve had dozens of conversations with lawmakers across the country about college entrance exams over the last year. Surprisingly, the topic that has drawn the most intense scrutiny has not been the CLT: It’s been changes made to the SAT in 2024 (and similar changes to the ACT being implemented right now). First, most lawmakers are surprised to learn that the tests change at all. They are then flabbergasted to learn what the most recent changes to the SAT were. The most noticeable changes were to the structure of the...

A federal judge ruled Monday it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination. U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion. In a hearing Monday on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could...

Over 2.1 million Americans have dropped out of college without earning a degree, a troubling trend that raises concerns about whether universities are prioritizing politics over academic achievement. Universities hire more DEI staff than history professors while millions of students leave without degrees ... Over 2.1 million Americans have dropped out of college without earning a degree, a troubling trend that raises concerns about whether universities are prioritizing politics over academic achievement. A June 4 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that college non-completers rose by 2.2 percent in the past year. Citing a lack of direction,...

.....Before I became a parent, I thought I’d raise my children with the same firmness that my West Indian teachers used at the small Episcopalian elementary school I attended in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were quick to discipline and had high expectations for us. I figured being strict would help prepare Black children for a world that rarely sees them as innocent — but that was before I became a mother, feeling the heavy responsibility of raising Black boys. The effects of racism aren’t just for the history books. Black Americans carry the weight of discrimination and injustice from those before...

Here’s a story you won’t see the mainstream media cover, ever: the white African farmers once demonized and stripped of their land and livelihoods under Robert Mugabe’s Marxist dictatorship in Zimbabwe didn’t just vanish into thin air. These fighters packed up, crossed the border, and rebuilt. And guess what? They’re doing amazing. If you don’t recall, back in the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s government kicked off a so-called “land reform” plan that drove white farmers off their land, often violently, and handed them over to Black Zimbabweans. Roughly, about four thousand white farmers were forced out, and many were attacked or...

A Wisconsin dairy farmer alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that the Trump administration is illegally denying financial assistance to white farmers by continuing programs that favor minorities.The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in federal court in Wisconsin on behalf of a white dairy farmer, Adam Faust. *** The new lawsuit alleges the government has continued to implement diversity, equity and inclusion programs that were instituted under former President Joe Biden. *** . “After being ignored by a federal agency that’s meant to support agriculture, I hope my...

Undercover video shows a Western Carolina University director of institutional assessment detailing a ‘strategy’ to ‘embed’ DEI. The WCU administrator caught on camera is ‘no longer employed by the university,’ a school spokesperson says. ... She went on to explain that if DEI is not explicitly mentioned in an office or title, it can remain undetected by legislators. “It is easier for them to be like, well, you need to get rid of that position because it has that niche title,” she says in the video. “Well, if we don’t create titles, and that it’s more just the work you...

A graduate student fears she won't be able to complete her 11th year of college in America because President Donald Trump might deport her. Oriette D’Angelo, a doctoral student studying Spanish and Gender, Women and Sexuality studies at the University of Iowa, moved from her home country of Venezuela to Chicago in 2015 on a student visa. The 34-year-old, who is also a professor, chose to flee her home of Lechería after she watched it decline. Although she's been in the US for years to seek academic and professional opportunities, D’Angelo is scared her dreams could soon be crushed by...

When it was recently reported that protesters disrupted Columbia University’s graduation ceremony, one might ask: which one?In addition to its main commencement, Columbia hosts no fewer than 10 separate graduation ceremonies, often referred to as affinity graduations. These include distinct events for black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQIA+, Jewish, native, international, disabled, and first-generation/low-income students.While Columbia claims that it has a “long history” of offering race-based and other segregated graduation ceremonies, this practice only dates back to 2005.To put this in perspective, Columbia was founded in 1754. For more than 250 years, the university held a single, unified commencement ceremony for all...

A coordinated campaign used bogus social media accounts to amplify backlash against Target after the company scaled back its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, according to a blockbuster report. An analysis by Israeli tech firm Cyabra found that nearly a third of the social media accounts driving outrage over the retail giant’s policy change were fake. The Minneapolis-based retailert announced it would roll back its controversial initiatives — which had drawn scorn from conservatives for touting items such as tuck-friendly bathing suits — after President Trump returned to the White House on Jan. 20. Cyabra reviewed thousands of posts on...

The Harvard Law Review retaliated against a student editor for allegedly leaking documents to the Washington Free Beacon and demanded, as part of the journal’s disciplinary process, that he request their destruction, according to emails obtained by the Free Beacon. The demand came as the law review was under a document retention order stemming from multiple federal probes, raising questions about whether the journal was also trying to interfere with a government investigation. The Justice Department told Harvard on May 13 that it was investigating reports of racial discrimination at the journal, according to the New York Times. A week...

SCOTUS Just ruled "Reverse Discrimination" IS Discrimination 9-0 A rare UNANIMOUS ruling from the Supreme Court. Honestly, this should be obvious and never made it to the Supreme Court. - June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that “reverse discrimination” is discrimination, siding with Marlean Ames, who claimed she was denied a promotion and demoted at the Ohio Department of Youth Services for being straight. - The ruling eliminates the “background circumstances” requirement in 20 states, ensuring majority groups like straight or white employees face the same evidentiary standard under Title VII. - Justice Ketanji "Woman?" Brown Jackson wrote...

Nearly a dozen aviation insiders, including a whistleblower who filed a federal complaint, asserted that diversity initiatives cause unneeded distractions.. For one veteran airline captain, a routine flight to Denver changed her view about aviation safety—but not because of an in-flight crisis. Rather, the captain heard a story that—for the first time in her decades-long career—made her uneasy about putting her loved ones on a plane. During a 2024 conversation, a flight instructor described unusual steps managers had taken to salvage the career of a young female trainee pilot. The instructor described an “egregious” example of the apparent relaxing of...