Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Here are last week’s updates.
Multistate
- A coalition of 15 Democratic attorneys general issued guidance to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, asserting the legality and viability of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) and accessibility policies in practices and education. The guidance responds to the Trump Administration’s executive order and “Dear Colleague” letter targeting DEI and accessibility policies. In their guidance, the attorneys general emphasized that K-12 schools can continue to employ policies aimed to ensure students feel safe by complying with anti-discrimination, anti-bullying, and civil rights laws. They also clarified that while cases such as Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College limited the ability of higher educational institutions to consider an applicant’s race as a positive admissions factor, schools can still diversify their applicant pools through other means.
- A coalition of 15 Democratic attorneys general secured a nationwide preliminary injunction preventing the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health from cutting off certain research funding. The preliminary injunction, issued in Massachusetts v. National Institutes of Health, protects funds that the attorneys general alleged are critical to biomedical research, such as lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.
Washington
- Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit against Renton Collections, Inc. alleging that it violated the Collection Agency Act and the state’s Consumer Protection Act for its failure to disclose to its consumers that they are legally entitled to information about their medical debt. The lawsuit seeks to prevent Renton Collections from further violating the law and to require it to pay restitution to consumers for the total amount collected, as well as interest and penalties. Additionally, it requests that King County Superior Court prohibit Renton Collections and other entities entitled to recover debt from seeking more than the amount of the original claim.