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DOJ official Ed Martin threatened to reject Georgetown Law hires over DEI programs

On February 17, 2025, Ed Martin, then interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to Georgetown University Law Center dean William Treanor demanding to know whether Georgetown had eliminated DEI from its curriculum and warning that his office would reject any fellowship, internship, or attorney applicant affiliated with a law school that continued to teach DEI. Treanor responded on March 6, 2025, invoking First Amendment protections for university curriculum autonomy and calling the demand a constitutional violation. The D.C. Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel later filed ethics charges against Martin over the letter.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On February 17, 2025, Ed Martin, then interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to Georgetown University Law Center dean William Treanor asking, "Have you eliminated all DEI from your school and its curriculum?" and "If DEI is found in your courses or teaching in any way, will you move swiftly to remove it?" Martin stated his office would reject any applicant for a fellowship, internship, or attorney position who attended or was affiliated with a law school "that continues to teach and utilize DEI," calling Georgetown's continuation of its DEI programs "unacceptable." [1][2]

Martin resent the letter on March 3, 2025, after a delivery issue, asking Treanor to respond "this week" as his office began reviewing candidates for attorney and internship positions — meaning Georgetown students and alumni would not be considered for DOJ hiring in the interim. [3]

Treanor responded on March 6, 2025, invoking First Amendment protection for university curriculum autonomy and calling the threat a constitutional violation and an attack on the university's Jesuit and Catholic mission. [1][2]

Updates

2026-03-06 — D.C. Bar filed ethics charges against Martin over the letter [4][5]

The D.C. Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed professional-misconduct charges against Martin, alleging he violated the First and Fifth Amendments by using DOJ hiring power to coerce Georgetown's curriculum decisions; Martin, by then DOJ's pardon attorney, separately contacted D.C. Court of Appeals judges directly about the case, which the disciplinary filing frames as an attempt to interfere with the proceeding. DOJ leadership publicly dismissed the charges as partisan.

2026-05-13 — DOJ backed Martin's bid to move D.C. Bar disciplinary case to federal court [6][7]

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest supporting Martin's motion to have his Georgetown-letter disciplinary case heard in federal court rather than by the D.C. Bar, and separately sued D.C. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton Fox and the D.C. Bar's disciplinary authorities, alleging they unlawfully "weaponized" bar discipline against federal government attorneys. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward called the suit fulfillment of Trump's order ending "weaponization of the legal process."

Why we recorded this

The Justice Department's hiring authority cannot be leveraged to coerce a private university's curriculum. Here, the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. told Georgetown Law's dean his office would reject any applicant connected to a school that continues teaching DEI, conditioning access to federal legal jobs on a university abandoning its own academic programming. This archive records when government employment power is used to pressure institutions into ideological conformity.

Sources

  1. U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. pressures Georgetown Law to end DEI programs; dean resists — Georgetown Free Speech Project investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  2. Georgetown University's Law School Dean Just Had to Remind Ed Martin About the First Amendment — Washingtonian investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  3. EXCLUSIVE: US Atty Ed Martin Tells Georgetown Law the DOJ will reject any applicant for a fellowship or internship program from a school with DEI programs — The Post Millennial secondary accessed August 4, 2026
  4. Justice Department official Ed Martin accused of ethics breach for letter to Georgetown dean — Los Angeles Times investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  5. Ed Martin Faces Disciplinary Proceedings for GU Law DEI Letter — The Hoya investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  6. Justice Department Files Complaint Against D.C. Bar Disciplinary Authorities Over Their Weaponization of the Bar Disciplinary Process Against Federal Government Attorneys — U.S. Department of Justice primary accessed August 4, 2026
  7. DOJ Sues DC Bar for Disciplining Officials, Cites Ed Martin Charges — The Hoya investigative accessed August 4, 2026

See also