A Department of Health and Human Services scholarship is illegally paying for indigenous Hawaiians to earn healthcare degrees, according to a complaint filed with the agency’s Office of Civil Rights.
The federal agency launched the Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program in 1991 “to increase representation of Native Hawaiian health professionals dedicated to serving the needs of Native Hawaiian Communities.”
The complaint from the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation notes the program has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in full-ride college scholarships to more than 300 “aboriginal descendants” studying to become doctors, nurses, dentists, psychologists, dietitians, social workers and physician assistants.
The complaint argues these provisions violate Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, which forbids excluding applicants from government programs “on the ground of race, color, or national origin.”
Wenyuan Wu, the foundation’s executive director, said they also violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by requiring students to “check a race or ancestry box” to receive federal aid.
“I am hopeful the federal government will find the program unconstitutional and discriminatory,” Ms. Wu said in an email.
Activists founded the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation in San Diego in 2020 to promote “equal rights and merit” after voters upheld the state’s ban on affirmative action.
Attorney Gail Heriot, the foundation’s executive vice president, said federal law allows special benefits for minorities only under “highly unusual circumstances” of discrimination that don’t apply to aboriginal Hawaiians.
“The federal government has somewhat more leeway when dealing with Indian tribes than it does with racial or ethnic groups,” said Ms. Heriot, a former independent member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “But because Native Hawaiians have always been part of the political mainstream in Hawaii and did not maintain separate governing structures, they are not considered a tribe for this purpose.”
HHS confirmed it was looking into the complaint in a June 1 letter that the foundation shared with The Washington Times.
“We will inform you of the results of our review as soon as possible,” Jamie Rahn Ballay, a regional manager, wrote to Ms. Wu.
The letter came four days after the agency opened an investigation into a similar complaint about three Biden-era healthcare training grant programs open only to minorities.
Ms. Rahn Ballay confirmed in a May 28 letter to the Equal Protection Project that the agency was probing the three fellowships for violating Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bans racial preferences in federal healthcare programs.
’A slam-dunk case’
The Biden Health and Human Services Department launched the grants in September 2024 to steer $5.7 million toward training Black, Hispanic and indigenous students as counselors and social workers.
The complaint noted that $2.77 million was already awarded, mostly under President Trump’s second term.
Cornell University law professor William Jacobson founded the Equal Protection Project to promote colorblind civil rights policies in 2023 — the same year the Supreme Court struck down racial preferences in college admissions.
He has argued in dozens of civil rights complaints for extending the high court’s logic to decades of federal grant programs that steer taxpayer money to minorities underrepresented in lucrative degree programs.
“I think it’s clear the federal government should not be able to hand out grants based on race,” Mr. Jacobson said in a recent phone interview.
Attorney Ilya Shapiro, a libertarian constitutional law expert at the Manhattan Institute, praised the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation for highlighting another violation of this legal principle.
“This seems to be a slam-dunk case,” Mr. Shapiro said in an email.
The Trump administration has canceled countless grant programs throughout the federal government that Democrats long insisted were necessary to ensure equal representation in education and the workforce.
Mr. Trump reversed two of former President Joseph R. Biden’s executive orders calling for such programs shortly after returning to office in January 2025.
Racial justice advocates have pushed back on this interpretation of U.S. civil rights law for ignoring social structures that have benefited White men for years.
“The manner in which these organizations and politicians are using civil rights legislation to overturn projects rooted in civil rights and equality is disgusting,” Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, said Wednesday.
