In 1865, the state of Mississippi passed a law allowing police to arrest and forcibly transport “any freedman, free negro, or mulatto” back to their employer if they failed to provide a satisfactory reason for quitting their jobs. The law was part of a slate of laws, known as “Black Codes,” passed in Southern states in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War that effectively sought to perpetuate slavery in all but name. Now, these laws are being weaponized against the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

These codes were a key impetus for the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and a specific provision, codified today as Section 1981, that states in part: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens.”

Today, this same law is being weaponized to try to eliminate programs that provide scholarships and other opportunities not just for African Americans, but also other groups that have faced discriminatory laws and practices.

The latest—and potentially most consequential—case is a lawsuit filed in December 2025 against the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF). The group, founded in 1975, is being sued in the US District Court for Washington, DC, by the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER). AAER’s founder, Edward Blum, also spearheaded the case against Harvard University that culminated in the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, effectively barring affirmative action policies in college admissions.

“Cases like this aim to turn civil rights protections upside down, and using them doesn’t advance equality, it re-entrenches inequality,” Sabrina Talukder, senior counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told NPQ. “It cuts against the purpose of these historic statutes that are meant to dispel the ‘badges and incidents of slavery,’ the very reasons for why they were enacted.”

Read the full article about the Hispanic Scholarship Fund being sued by Ted Siefer at Nonprofit Quarterly.