A federal judge dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit against Minneapolis Public Schools’ policy aimed at retaining teachers of color on procedural grounds Monday.
The decision is the latest twist in a case that began as part of a deal to end a 2022 teachers’ strike and was taken up in court by conservative activists, leading to a four-year legal fight.
In his order, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, an appointee of George W. Bush, made clear he had “grave doubts about the legality of the racial discrimination in which MPS is forced to engage” under its collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union. The policy in question, which the district and union agreed to following a three-week educator strike in 2022, allows the district to retain “underrepresented” teachers, rather than strictly follow seniority order, during staff reductions. Schiltz said that policy could lead to a Black teacher being retained over a white teacher on the basis of race.
Still, Schiltz said, the lawsuit must be dismissed due to a quirk in how federal law governs discrimination cases. Since the policy was governed by a collective bargaining agreement, Schiltz said, the union was a necessary party to the lawsuit. But the Department of Justice did not and could not include the union in the lawsuit, because under federal law, the U.S. Attorney General can only bring lawsuits alleging a pattern or practice of discrimination against governmental entities — not against private entities like labor unions.
“The Court concludes that this action cannot proceed ‘in equity and good conscience’ without the Union,” Schiltz concluded.
Schiltz said that any aggrieved teacher could file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is tasked with enforcing discrimination laws against private entities.
A Department of Justice official said the agency was reviewing the order and would decide on its options. The Minneapolis Federation of Educators did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Minneapolis Public Schools officials said they were pleased with the court’s decision and remained committed to the district’s collective bargaining agreements.
A day after the decision, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators said in a statement that it agreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the case, but disagreed with some of his “commentary,” which it said would “undoubtedly attract the attention of anti-union groups.”
“This language is in our contract because an overwhelming majority of our membership, which is predominantly white educators, made an informed decision to put retention of educators from underrepresented backgrounds ahead of themselves,” the union said.
Four years of legal wrangling
Schiltz’s dismissal of the federal lawsuit marks the latest chapter in the policy’s four-year legal saga.
The union and district agreed to the policy in March 2022 as part of a deal to end a three-week strike.
Studies have shown that a more diverse teaching workforce can boost education outcomes. But in Minneapolis Public Schools, like many districts in Minnesota, the teaching workforce is disproportionately white compared to its student body. Minneapolis Public Schools serves a diverse student population — about a third of students are white, a quarter Black, and a quarter Latino. But state data show that about three in four of their teachers are white.
Typically, teacher layoffs happen on the basis of seniority; the most recently hired teachers are first to be cut. Since teachers of color are more likely to be recently hired, these cuts disproportionately affect them. The 2022 policy in the collective bargaining agreement was an attempt to better retain teachers of color during these circumstances.
The provision in the contract to exempt “underrepresented” teachers from seniority-based layoffs attracted attention from national conservative media and legal groups. In August 2022, a Minneapolis taxpayer sued over the policy, claiming her tax dollars were being used for illegal discrimination against white teachers. The taxpayer, Deborah Clapp, was represented by the right-wing organization Judicial Watch and Minneapolis lawyer Daniel Rosen, who is now the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. (Rosen did not represent the Department of Justice in the current federal case.)
Ultimately, Clapp’s lawsuit made its way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. In January 2025, days before Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as president, the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed Clapp’s lawsuit, saying she lacked standing. Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said he’d ask Trump to investigate the case as a “blatant civil rights violation.”
And the Trump administration promptly did. On May 5, 2025, the Department of Justice sent an initial notice of investigation letter to Minneapolis Public Schools. In December, the agency sued, and Schiltz heard arguments in May 2026.
Though the contested language has led to four years of legal wrangling, it’s not clear that it’s had much impact on Minneapolis teachers.
The teachers’ union said Tuesday that the layoff language had not directly affected any of its members. In court, Minneapolis Public Schools noted that the Department of Justice had not identified a single teacher affected by the policy.
The district has made extensive staffing cuts in each of the last three years. But Timothy Sullivan, a lawyer representing Minneapolis Public Schools, told the court in May that “in none of those instances was the challenged contractual language applied to determine whether a teacher was excessed or laid off.”
