DOJ legal opinion subjects magnet school grants to strict scrutiny over race criteria

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has issued a binding opinion recasting how the Department of Education may run the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. It holds that the program's race-based criteria trigger strict scrutiny, barring grants aimed at diversity or reducing racial isolation unless tied to remedying proven discrimination. The move changes what applicant school districts must show.

• OLC concludes MSAP's framework ties federal funding to race-based concepts including minority-group isolation and the use of racial data to shape decisions.
• The opinion holds the program must be evaluated under strict scrutiny, the Constitution's most rigorous standard.
• Education may approve grants only where an applicant shows its use of race is narrowly tailored to remedy a specific, identified instance of illegal discrimination.
• Grants aimed solely at increasing diversity, reducing racial isolation or altering racial balance, untethered from remedying unlawful discrimination, cannot be approved.
• DOJ says it will work with the Department of Education to bring MSAP awards into compliance; the opinion was signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock.

Executive summary

The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion on November 5, 2026 addressing the limits on the Department of Education's authority to consider race when administering the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP). MSAP is a federal grant…

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