American Alliance for Equal Rights Sues Hispanic Scholarship Fund for Excluding Non-Hispanic Students from Flagship Scholarship Program

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Hispanic Scholarship Fund ("HSF"), challenging the legality of HSF's flagship "HSF Scholars Program."

The complaint is attached.

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The complaint alleges that HSF violates 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, by limiting eligibility for its HSF Scholars Program to applicants who "identify as being of Hispanic Heritage," thereby excluding otherwise qualified students who are Asian, white, black, or members of other non-Hispanic groups.

According to the lawsuit, the HSF's program is not simply a gift of money but a contractual arrangement. In return for the opportunity to compete for thousands of dollars in scholarship funding and access to mentoring, conferences, and exclusive job and internship opportunities, applicants must:

• Create an HSF account and agree to HSF's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy;
• Grant HSF a worldwide license to use their name, image, and likeness;
• Consent to extensive collection and use of their personal data;
• Agree to a liability waiver, a class-action waiver, a jury-trial waiver, an arbitration agreement, and other binding provisions;
• Complete essays and, if seeking scholarship funds, submit financial-aid documentation.

The Alliance's complaint contends that because HSF conditions access to this package of contractual benefits on a student being at least one-quarter Hispanic/Latino, it unlawfully denies non-Hispanic students the "same right."

The lawsuit is brought on behalf of two AAER members who wish to apply to the program but are barred solely because they are not Hispanic:

• Student A, an Asian American high school senior with a 4.0 GPA who plans to enroll full-time at a four-year university and meets all non-ethnic eligibility requirements.
• Student B, a non-Hispanic white law student with a 3.63 GPA who will be a full-time third-year law student in the 2026–27 academic year and likewise meets all non-ethnic criteria.

Both students, the complaint explains, want to apply for the HSF Scholars Program's financial awards, mentoring, and exclusive career opportunities, but are blocked at the threshold because they do not "identify as being of Hispanic Heritage."

AAER asks the court to:

• Declare that the HSF Scholars Program violates 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
• Issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing HSF from closing the current application window or selecting winners while the Court considers the merits.
• Permanently enjoin HSF from using ethnicity directly or through proxies in the administration of its program.
• Award nominal damages and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

Edward Blum, president of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, said, "The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is free to support students of Hispanic heritage but it is not free to exclude talented young men and women of other backgrounds from a major national scholarship program solely because they are the 'wrong' ethnicity.

Blum added, "Asian American students, white students, and black students should have the same right to compete for scholarships based on their merit, not on their ancestry."

Contact:
Edward Blum
[email protected]
703-505-1922

SOURCE American Alliance for Equal Rights