FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Today, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia in filing two amicus briefs supporting the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) in two lawsuits challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) recent decisions to cut off funding for the long-standing federal TRIO programs.
The amicus briefs, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, support COE’s efforts to protect access to higher education for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students. The lawsuits seek to stop the DOE’s discontinuation of many active TRIO grants and denial of new Student Support Services (SSS) grants, both of which the DOE justified under newly adopted federal policies that restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“Last year, TRIO programs gave more than 12,500 low-income and first-generation Maryland students the tutoring, counseling, and support they needed to get into college and earn their degrees,” said Attorney General Brown. “The Trump administration’s unlawful decision to cut this funding threatens critical programming for Marylanders trying to build better lives and risks weakening Maryland’s economy by denying opportunities to the students who need them most.”
The two complaints filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia address separate but related actions. The TRIO complaint challenges the DOE’s failure to continue dozens of ongoing TRIO grants that were funded through 2026. The SSS complaint contests the denial of new SSS grant applications, which the DOE rejected after retroactively applying new anti-DEI policies despite the fact that applications were submitted under 2024 guidance from the prior administration, which required applicants to describe how their programs would address equity and accessibility. The challenged actions have already forced longstanding programs at college and universities nationwide to close, denying support to students who rely on them.
These lawsuits assert that the DOE’s actions violate multiple provisions of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as Congressional intent in maintaining TRIO programs for nearly six decades.
The amicus briefs filed by Maryland and joining states underscore that the sudden loss of federal funding for these programs would have severe and long-term consequences for students, colleges, and state economies.
In signing onto the amicus briefs, Attorney General Brown is joined by the attorneys general of Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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