The News: The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just announced two new federal investigations against discriminatory DEI education and training programs at major academic medical centers—Johns Hopkins University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. WLWT TV in Cincinnati, Ohio broke the story last night. HHS’s investigations are in response to complaints filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), on behalf of its client Do No Harm (DNH).

Months ago, HHS also announced an investigation into the Cleveland Clinic following WILL’s complaint regarding racially discriminatory DEI patient-care programs. The federal government’s investigations into these healthcare systems represent the first major federal inquiry into the legality of DEI practices in healthcare in response to President Trump’s executive orders.

From the Department of Health and Human Services: “These investigations are in response to allegations and information OCR received that certain medical schools and hospitals that receive HHS funding may operate medical education, training, or scholarship programs for current or prospective workforce members that discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex. National policy under Executive Order 14173 directs federal agencies to enforce long-standing civil rights laws and ‘to combat illegal private sector [diversity, equity and inclusion] DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.’”

“‘Today’s actions restore merit-based opportunities in medicine and signify that hard-working health care professionals and high-achieving students in the pipeline for medical and nursing fields should not be demeaned at work, or excluded from professional or scholarship opportunities, because of their race or sex,’ said Anthony Archeval, Acting Director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS.” (HHS Media Release, 3.7.25).

The Quotes: WILL Associate Counsel, Cara Tolliver, stated, “America’s healthcare systems and medical training institutions face a reckoning, and the Trump-Vance Administration has shown a clear willingness to end government-funded racial discrimination. The healthcare system cannot function effectively when patient care and healthcare education are allotted to individuals based on race instead of need or merit, respectively. It is high time for these discriminatory practices to end. WILL is prepared to eliminate as many illegal programs as possible.”

“Johns Hopkins must immediately cease its discriminatory practices if it wishes to be a model for medical education,” said Stanley Goldfarb, MD, Chairman of Do No Harm. “This investigation is an important first step toward holding Johns Hopkins accountable for its unlawful racial discrimination. Restricting opportunities based on race is incompatible with the fundamental ethical principles of medicine.”

Additional Background: On January 15, 2025, WILL and DNH filed a civil rights complaint challenging various examples of sex and/or race discrimination in medical education, training, and scholarship programs provided at Johns Hopkins University through its School of Medicine.

The University boasts of a top-ranking medical school in which third- and fourth-year medical students have opportunities to complete required “clinical rotations” to gain hands-on patient care experiences across various medical specialties. However, Johns Hopkins does not treat all students equally in providing these crucial training experiences and relies on taxpayer funds to impose race- and sex-based eligibility criteria across various clinical clerkships and scholarship programming—including, for example, clinical experiences in the specialties of dermatology, orthopedics, pediatrics, plastic surgery, and general medicine.

Additionally, in late December 2024, WILL challenged the Ohio-based, top-ranking pediatric hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for similar discriminatory practices imposed in its education, training, and scholarship programs.

Because these programs at Cincinnati Children’s and Johns Hopkins discriminate against students based on race, and are racially motivated to prioritize race and racial politics in an effort to “balance” populations by race, both health systems have violated the anti-discrimination provisions of Title VI and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

On March 10, 2025, in letters to WILL, HHS stated that its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “has determined that [it] has jurisdiction over [WILL’s] allegation[s],” and “[t]herefore, OCR will initiate an investigation” into both Johns Hopkins and Cincinnati Children’s.

Meanwhile, in September 2024, following a complaint filed by WILL and DNH, HHS announced that it would place the Cleveland Clinic under a pending federal investigation concerning the clinic’s operation of multiple programs that segregate, and discriminate against, patients based on race.

The consequences of non-compliance with anti-discrimination laws can be steep for federally funded healthcare systems. If HHS determines that a healthcare organization has violated Title VI or the ACA, it may require the entity to implement a plan of action to correct its violations. In such cases, if the agency is unable to secure voluntary compliance with anti-discrimination law, HHS may secure compliance through the suspension or termination of federal financial assistance—funding that often makes up a sizeable share of a health system’s overall budget. Alternatively, to obtain compliance, HHS may also refer the matter to the Department of Justice with a recommendation to initiate enforcement proceedings—an option that may similarly result in the termination of federal financial assistance.

WILL’s Roadmap to Equality: President Trump has promised an unprecedented rollback of unconstitutional DEI policies across the federal government. With this in mind, WILL officially launched “The Roadmap to Equality” earlier this year to provide a one-stop resource to the Trump Administration, allowing them to easily identify these programs, policies, and regulations, and then terminate, settle, or investigate them. This effort also includes numerous civil rights complaints against unconstitutional programs in the government, non-profit, and healthcare sectors. Our hope is to help implement a new, once-in-a-generation policy of equality and fairness for all Americans.

Read more:
HHS Notice of Investigation – Johns Hopkins, 3.10.25
HHS Notice of Investigation – Cincinnati Children’s, 3.10.25
Federal Officials Open Investigation into Cleveland Clinic for Discriminatory Healthcare Programs
WILL Seeks to Hold Top-Ranking Cincinnati, Ohio Hospital Accountable for Discriminatory Medical Education and Training Programs

More about WILL’s Equality Under the Law Project can be found here: DefendEquality.org.