司法部发布法律意见：磁石学校联邦援助不得附加违宪种族标准
美国司法部2026年11月5日宣布，司法部法律顾问办公室（Office of Legal Counsel）当日发布法律意见，厘清美国教育部在实施磁石学校援助计划（Magnet Schools Assistance Program，MSAP）时考量种族因素的权限边界：联邦教育援助不得附加违宪的种族标准。MSAP 是联邦竞争性拨款计划，向学区提供资助，旨在促进自愿消除种族隔离并扩大所有学生的教育机会。
意见指出，MSAP 的法定与监管框架把联邦资助与「少数族群隔离」（minority-group isolation）等种族概念以及利用种族数据影响拨款决定挂钩。由于这些标准使联邦援助以种族考量为条件，该计划必须接受宪法最严格的审查标准，即严格审查（strict scrutiny）。
按此标准，教育部只有在申请人证明其使用种族因素系为补救某一具体、已查明的违法歧视行为、且手段狭义合目的时，才能批准 MSAP 拨款。意见明确，仅以增加种族多样性、减少种族隔离或调整种族平衡为目标、与补救违法歧视无关的拨款，不能获得批准。
司法部法律顾问办公室助理检察长 T. Elliot Gaiser 表示，这份意见重申了宪法秩序的一项基本原则：政府计划必须把人当作个体对待，而不是种族群体的成员，只有在极罕见的情况下，资助决定才可取决于学校的种族构成。签署该意见的副助理检察长 Joshua Craddock 表示，联邦资金绝不能被用来搞违宪的种族平衡。司法部称，将与教育部密切协作，确保 MSAP 拨款完全符合上述宪法要求，同时继续支持磁石学校促进学术卓越与教育机会的使命。（来源：美国司法部）
Justice Department Opinion: Federal Magnet School Aid Cannot Be Tied to Unconstitutional Race-Based Criteria
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on November 5, 2026, that its Office of Legal Counsel had issued an opinion clarifying the limits on the Department of Education's authority to consider race when administering the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP): federal education aid cannot be tied to unconstitutional race-based criteria. MSAP is a federal competitive grant program that funds school districts to promote voluntary desegregation and expand educational opportunities for students.
The opinion explains that MSAP's statutory and regulatory framework ties federal funding to race-based concepts such as "minority-group isolation" and the use of racial data to shape funding decisions. Because those criteria condition federal support on racial considerations, the opinion concludes the program must be evaluated under strict scrutiny, the Constitution's most rigorous standard.
Under that standard, the Department of Education may approve MSAP grants only when an applicant demonstrates that its use of race is narrowly tailored to remedy a specific and identified instance of illegal discrimination. Grants based solely on goals such as increasing racial diversity, reducing racial isolation, or altering racial balance, untethered from the remediation of unlawful discrimination, cannot be approved, the opinion makes clear.
Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser of the Office of Legal Counsel said the opinion reaffirms a foundational principle of the constitutional order: government programs must treat individuals as individuals, not as members of racial groups, and only in exceptionally rare circumstances may funding decisions turn on a school's racial composition. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, who signed the opinion, said federal dollars must never be used to engineer unconstitutional racial balancing. The Justice Department said it will work closely with the Department of Education to ensure MSAP awards fully comply with these constitutional requirements while continuing to support magnet schools' mission. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于 Washington 的美国教育部林登·约翰逊大楼。GSM联邦机构固定图库照片，摄影 ajay_suresh，CC BY 2.0，来源 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Education Lyndon Baines Johnson Building in Washington. GSM federal fixed library photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
