Some University of Alabama students, professors and the state chapter of the NAACP recently filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's 2024 law banning taxpayer-funded Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices and training.
The new law was enacted on Oct. 1, 2024. State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) sponsored the bill, which sailed through the Alabama legislature last year despite condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and liberal advocates.
While the law was intended to eliminate DEI departments, it resulted in more of a rebranding in most cases. The University of Alabama at Birmingham's DEI office was transformed into the Office of Access and Engagement, which opened with a "new charge and function to broadly serve and promote the success of all UAB students, faculty and staff." The office is led by the vice president of Access and Engagement, Paulette Dilworth, the school's vice president of DEI since 2015.
The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP of Alabama, along with a handful of students and professors, is listed as a plaintiff in the suit.
In a release, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama, which is representing the plaintiffs along with the Legal Defense Fund Arnold & Porter, claimed the law was so "vague and ambiguous that educators and students cannot reasonably discern what is prohibited by the statute's terms."
"Since SB129's passage, black professors and students, LGBTQIA students, and other students of color have experienced numerous harms — including censorship of certain teachings and discussions involving race-based and sex-based inequalities, discriminatory restrictions on university funding for student organizations, and removal of inclusive campus spaces that had served black and LGBTQIA university students for several years," the ACLU statement read.
It continued, "[P]laintiffs claim that SB129 violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on educators' speech, the information students seek to learn, and universities' allocation of state funding and on-campus spaces to student organizations. They further assert that SB129 is so vague and ambiguous that educators and students cannot reasonably discern what is prohibited by the statute's terms in violation of their rights to Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment. In addition, the complaint alleges that SB129 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it intentionally discriminates against black faculty and students on the basis of race."
Barfoot declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. However, Laura Clark, president of the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty, said the lawsuit itself was contradictory.
"There's a legal difference between 'I can't understand it' and 'I don't like it,'" Clark told 1819 News. "But what is more interesting is them simultaneously arguing it is too vague and yet it is so specific it discriminates a certain viewpoint. They are contradictory arguments."
She continued, "Laws that are vague and overbroad are unconstitutional. We want laws to be easy for citizens to follow and not accidentally violate. That is not the case here. The law does a great job spelling out what a divisive concept is and where it may and may not be presented. It even carves out ways divisive people can spill their little divisive hearts out so long as it is not coerced or forced on others. That makes it not discriminatory. It prevents these divisive concepts from every angle. Surely the ACLU, in all its divisive ways, does not wish a school to force students to learn that white people are better than other races? That is prevented in this Bill."
"If it were viewpoint discrimination, you would see it saying that you can only teach that white people can be racist. Instead, it prevents mandating students to learn that any race is confined to certain attributes and sins based on their race. The state is not going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to endorse divisive content. It doesn't prevent it from being taught so long as it's not endorsed by the school."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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