In 2021, Congress passed the Digital Equity Act to expand access to broadband internet among underserved populations, including individuals from underrepresented racial backgrounds. The legislation established two grant programs: the Capacity Grant Program, which directs money to states, and the Competitive Grant Program, which allocates money to individual applicants, such as the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), a grassroots organization dedicating to advancing digital equity across the nation.
Although the NDIA was awarded Competitive Grant Program funding in January 2025, the organization never received the money. On May 8, 2025, President Trump announced that he believed the Digital Equity Act was unconstitutional because it considered race as a factor when allocating federal funds. The following day, the National Institute of Standards and Technology informed the NDIA that the Competitive Grant Program and the awards made under it were terminated. The NDIA has since filed a lawsuit against President Trump and his administration.
Recently, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the administration cannot unilaterally terminate the Digital Equity Act’s Competitive Grant Program; however, Judge Bates declared the program’s race provision as unconstitutional, severing the consideration of racial and ethnic minorities from the program’s covered populations.
“While we celebrate the survival of the grant program, we fundamentally object to the government’s position that empowering Black and Brown communities is unconstitutional,” reads a statement from NDIA. “Systemic obstacles to digital equity remain a stark reality, and we will continue to advocate for the data-driven truth that digital redlining and historic discrimination have created disproportionate barriers for these communities.”
On July 17, National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial released a statement condemning Judge Bates’ ruling: “Today’s ruling is a troubling addition to a growing line of decisions that acknowledge the existence of racial inequality while stripping government of the tools needed to address it. The decision to remove race and ethnicity from the Digital Equity Act repeats a dangerous judicial fiction: that recognizing a racial disparity is itself a form of racial discrimination.”
Morial continued, “The National Urban League rejects the false choice between equal treatment and an honest response to racial inequality. True equality requires confronting the conditions that keep opportunity out of reach. It requires lawmakers to understand history, follow the evidence, and design remedies that are equal to the scale of the harm. We call on the administration to restore the Competitive Grant Program immediately and distribute the funds Congress authorized. We also call on Congress to reassert its constitutional authority to enforce the guarantees of the Reconstruction Amendments and to enact effective remedies for racial disparities in voting, education, economic opportunity, technology, and every other area of American life.”
