July 17, 2026
Press Contact: Nik Sibley, nsibley@raben.co, 850-345-7092
Washington, DC — The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (“CBCF”) this morning responded in federal court to The American Alliance for Equal Rights and Defending Education’s meritless complaint challenging The CBCF Spouses’ Education Scholarship. Our response, linked here, makes plain that the plaintiffs are wrong on both the facts and the law and that their lawsuit should be dismissed.
In response to this morning’s filing, Nicole Austin-Hillery, President and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; and co-counsels Jason Schwartz, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; and Alphonso David, Civil Rights Attorney and President & CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum issued the following statements:
“For 50 years, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has been dedicated to a world in which all communities have an equal voice in public policy including ensuring that African Americans and other marginalized communities in the United States have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. For more than 40 of those years, the spouses of CBC members have supported the CBCF’s Spouses’ Education Scholarship program, furthering our commitment to public policy, research, education and leadership development by advancing our mission as an educational institution,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, President and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. “Today’s motion to dismiss makes clear that the legal challenges to our scholarship program by the American Alliance for Equal Rights and Defending Education—another in their long line of efforts to target groups that advance the Black community—-is without merit. The scholarship is entirely lawful, is an enormous benefit to all students, and will proceed to help countless students and the institutions that educate them.”
“Today in our legal filing, the CBCF makes clear that the scholarship program they support and which the plaintiffs have wrongly challenged complies with the law,” said co-counsel Jason Schwartz, Partner at Gibson Dunn. “The plaintiffs’ challenge is wrong on both the facts and the law.”
“The lawsuit filed by The American Alliance for Equal Rights and Defending Education against the CBCF is on its face baseless. Their misunderstanding of the law and lack of due diligence on the basic facts reveals that something far more consequential is at stake here. This lawsuit is an attack on the speech and debate privileges held by Members of Congress, an indifference to the first amendment freedoms of speech and association that we all enjoy and demeaning to the extraordinary generosity of a scholarship program created by African Americans but open to all,” said co-counsel Alphonso David, Civil Rights Attorney and President & CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “The CBCF Spouses’ Education Scholarship comports with the law and we expect this meritless lawsuit to be dismissed.”
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Established in 1976, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (CBCF) is a non-partisan, nonprofit, public policy, research, and educational institute committed to advancing the global black community by developing leaders, informing policy, and educating the public. For more information, visit cbcfinc.org. As a 501(c)(3), the CBCF takes no position on legislation or regulatory matters before Congress or any other government agency.