The Department of Justice is stepping into a federal lawsuit accusing the nation’s second-largest school district of doing something it really shouldn’t be doing in 2026: sorting students by race. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division moved Wednesday to intervene in the case against the Los Angeles Unified School District, targeting its Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other (PHBAO) program, which classifies neighborhoods as “Anglo” or non-Anglo to decide who gets extra money and who gets preferred access to certain schools.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi made the administration’s position crystal clear, saying equal treatment is not optional and that public schools must follow the Constitution. Translation: the law doesn’t come with a racial asterisk, no matter how fancy the program name sounds.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon was even more direct, calling the classification system unlawful and warning that students should never be treated differently because of their race. She criticized LAUSD for providing benefits that effectively assume students have learning disadvantages based solely on racial makeup, reminding everyone that racial discrimination is both unlawful and un-American. Apparently, that still needs to be said out loud.
According to the DOJ complaint, LAUSD labels areas with fewer than 30 percent white residents as “disadvantaged.” Schools with that label receive extra funding to shrink class sizes by about 5.5 students per teacher and get admission preferences for competitive magnet programs. In other words, race helps decide who gets what — which tends to raise eyebrows when the Constitution is involved.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the policy has run so long it has crossed into unconstitutional territory, arguing that desegregation programs that never end eventually turn into discrimination programs. School districts, he said, must treat students equally and stop using race as a sorting hat.
The lawsuit was originally filed in January by the 1776 Project Foundation, a conservative education group. Lead attorney Michael DiNardo blasted the policy as unconstitutional, saying what started as a temporary measure to address segregation has become a rigid system of racial favoritism that blocks thousands of students from equal opportunity.
LAUSD responded by saying it cannot comment on the specifics because of ongoing litigation but insists it remains committed to giving students meaningful access to services and educational opportunities. A nice-sounding sentence, though it doesn’t quite answer why race is still doing the heavy lifting.
The PHBAO label currently applies to more than 600 campuses, leaving fewer than 100 outside the classification, according to the New York Times. White students make up about 10 percent of total enrollment, which means the program affects almost the entire district.
With the DOJ now involved, this case is no longer just about one school district — it’s about whether equal protection under the law still means what it says. Under the Trump administration, the message is simple: students should be treated as individuals, not categories. And if that idea sounds old-fashioned, that’s probably because it’s called the Constitution — and it’s making a comeback.
