DOJ Action Prompts Minnesota to Revoke Controversial Race-Based Grant

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has opted to pause a race-specific grant initiative following the commencement of a compliance review by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), as announced by the DOJ on Tuesday.

According to the DOJ, this grant program, known as the Capacity Strengthening Initiative, was designed to include only organizations that served communities of color. It offered “strategic consideration” and prioritized proposals from organizations headed by leaders from these communities.

Furthermore, the DOJ claimed the program favored distributing more funds to communities identified as “Black or African American” and “nonwhite Latino(a).”

The Grant Portal, an independent third-party source, described the 2023 Capacity Strengthening Grant as aiming to bolster the effectiveness of metropolitan and rural community-based and faith-based groups that assist communities of color, American Indians, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities.

The strict race-based language, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division explained, was a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

“Recipients of federal dollars cannot decide who benefits from those funds on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” Dhillon said in a DOJ statement. “The Department appreciates that the State of Minnesota has recognized this foundational principle and has repealed the statute governing the program.”

MDH withdrew the grant program after the DOJ initiated a review based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the DOJ statement claimed. Title VI prohibits any recipient of Federal financial assistance — a group that includes MDH — from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

News Media contacted the DOJ and MDH for further comment and confirmation.