Author | Lightnews

Ray Li

Ray Li

@raymli.bsky.social

14 followers 64 following 38 posts

Education civil rights lawyer. Talking about education policy, civil rights, and constitutional law. All opinions my own. Currently: Education Equity Policy Counsel at LDF Formerly: Dept of ED Office for Civil Rights, Hogan Lovells, Stanford Law School

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Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

My public comment here: drive.google.com/file/d/11REW...

7-1-2025 Ray Li Public Comment.mp4

drive.google.com

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

The proposed rule now heads back to ED before progressing further. When ED reproposes this rule as an NPRM, those in support of a strong, robust, and viewpoint discrimination free PSLF program should weigh in during the public comment process.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

Although the civil rights community was blocked from having a seat at the negotiators' table, those working together on this issue were able to block the committee from reaching consensus.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

If ED kept its proposed rule, it would be clear what side of history it chooses to fall on.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

I ended my testimony with a note that LDF's founder Thurgood Marshall famously represented students accused of trespassing in cases like Boynton v. Virginia and Bell v. Maryland. In those cases, Black students dared to violate state tort laws by sitting in "whites only" sections of restaurants.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

The regulatory language gave unfettered discretion to the ED Secretary to make determinations of law totally outside of the scope of the agency's expertise, a grant of authority that would be as reckless as it is ineffective.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

While ED tries to cast these actions as obviously against public interest, the regulatory language itself sweeps so broad, it is no question that it invites unconstitutional abuse from ED.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

ED defines this term broadly to include any employers that support terrorism, aid and abet immigration violations, perform gender affirming care for youths, aid and abet discrimination, and commit state tort law violations related to trespass, disorderly conduct, and public nuisance.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

ED had proposed changes to the regulations governing PSLF that deem certain non-profit and state/local government employees as no longer eligible for loan forgiveness if their employers take actions that have a "substantial illegal purpose."

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

Amid all of the chaos in federal education policy right now, it should not be lost in the shuffle that this Administration is attempting to gut PSLF by kicking out employers that do not fall in line with this Administration's political agenda or those that protest its policies.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Jul 7

Last week I provided public comment on behalf of the @legaldefensefund.bsky.social at the Department of Education's negotiated rulemaking session regarding proposed changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. This is a big issue that is under the radar. #ED #NegReg #PSLF

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

Unfortunately, many schools and colleges will capitulate given the magnitude of the threat (the loss of all federal funding!). I am heartened to see that groups are already filing lawsuits to enjoin this lawless policy document. I hope that they prevail.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

What OCR attempts to do here is quite astonishing. It advances a legal argument, expressly foreclosed by courts of appeal, in hopes that schools and colleges balk at threats alone.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

These groups attempted to make the same off-base claims advanced in the recent DCL. In each case so far, the complainant groups have lost, the schools have won, and the Supreme Court has declined to further review the decisions of federal appellate courts.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

Under the last administration, I worked with colleagues across the federal government to litigate cases alongside school districts that had race-neutral policies challenged by groups similar to SFFA.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

Decades of Supreme Court case law, including SFFA itself, has endorsed race-neutral alternatives as a way to foster diverse student bodies.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

The DCL attempts to contort the decision in SFFA v. Harvard to also prohibit schools and colleges from pursuing race-neutral actions to address race-conscious problems. That position is unsupportable.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

Much of the news coverage of this DCL has not quite focused on what I find to be the most novel and troubling legal argument advanced by Trump’s OCR.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 27

I have an op-ed out today in @insidehighered.com discussing the ED OCR Dear Colleague Letter on DEI and student body diversity. As I have posted recently, this letter is dangerous.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Dear Colleague letter is lawless attack on DEI (opinion)

Ray Li writes that the Feb. 14 Dear Colleague letter is not supported by established case law or sound legal reasoning.

www.insidehighered.com

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

#OCR #DCL #Education #CivilRightsLaw

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

It continues to pain me to see some of our nation's most important and long-standing civil rights laws being used to attack educational equity in this country, harming students of color nationwide.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

Not only are programs directed at closing racial achievement gaps, that do not use race in administering benefits or burdens, generally legal, they are also important.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

That view of the law turns civil rights protections on its head.

Ray Li @raymli.bsky.social · Feb 24

The group here seems to rely on the same faulty logic featured in OCR's February 14, 2025, Dear Colleague Letter, namely the idea that race-neutral changes to school policies create a Title VI violation when done to address race-conscious problems.