JULY 9, 2025 – On behalf of four civil rights organizations that received Congressionally authorized grants to counter incidents of hate and bigotry, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has filed a lawsuit challenging the termination of those grants.
The plaintiff organizations (Right To Be; South Asian Network; St. Barnabas Senior Center of Los Angeles; and Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center) have built entire programs with funding from the Community-Based Approaches to Hate Crimes grant initiative, which Congress first authorized in 2022 with a $5 million appropriation and has since reauthorized twice. Programs that the plaintiffs implemented, or were in the process of implementing, include offering therapy to hate crime victims and delivering Know Your Rights seminars, in partnership with law enforcement, to combat human trafficking.
But in April of this year, midstream of these three-year grants, the Department of Justice, which is tasked with administering the program, abruptly ended it without justification.
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the DOJ's actions as a violation of the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, the Constitution's Separation of Powers, the Administrative Procedure Act, and on other grounds.
"Davis Wright Tremaine is committed to supporting the critical work that nonprofit organizations around the country are doing to better our communities," said Nimra Azmi, DWT's lead attorney on the pro bono case. "Congress has consistently recognized the need to combat hate crimes by empowering local communities. We look forward to the court declaring the current administration's actions unlawful and directing the DOJ to reinstate the dismantled program by restoring the grants—including those that our clients applied for, received, and were deploying to advance their vital missions."
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC serves as co-counsel with DWT in the case.
DWT litigators recently secured a separate victory for another nonprofit client, as a federal judge found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had unlawfully terminated grants under the Congressionally authorized Thriving Communities program.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
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