The Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC), a nonprofit serving the legal needs of sex-based harassment victims, along with multiple minor students and their parents, filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education. The plaintiffs challenge a reduction-in-force (RIF) at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that terminated nearly half of OCR's workforce and closed seven of OCR’s twelve regional offices. The complaint alleges that these actions were arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and that the RIF was ultra vires because it left OCR unable to fulfill its statutory obligations to investigate civil rights complaints. The plaintiffs requested declaratory and injunctive relief to vacate the RIF and prevent the Department from enforcing it.
