Every job Sophia Ceniza (LAW ’25) has worked in law school has been with the federal government. With her May graduation nearing, she no longer hopes to continue in federal work, particularly as Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin threatens to withhold job opportunities from Georgetown students.
“I personally have not been applying to post-grad jobs with the federal government under the assumption that it is not really worth it given the current situation facing students that went to Georgetown Law that have my background—being very obviously a woman of color who’s worked in Democratic political offices,” Ceniza told the Voice.
On March 3, Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) Dean William M. Treanor received a letter from Martin demanding that GULC no longer teach or promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). If Treanor did not comply, Martin warned, Georgetown students and graduates would no longer be considered for positions within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (USAO-DC).
“At this time, you should know that no applicant for our fellows program, our summer internship, or employment in our office who is a student or affiliated with a law school or university that continues to teach and utilize DEI will be considered,” Martin wrote.
The letter asked Treanor two questions.
“First, have you eliminated all DEl from your school and its curriculum?” Martin asked. “Second, if DEl is found in your courses or teaching in any way, will you move swiftly to remove it?”
Martin never clarified within the letter what policies “DEI” referred to, nor did he provide a timeline for when Treanor needed to eliminate these policies. The U.S. attorney’s office could not be reached for comment by publication.
In a March 6 response to Martin, Treanor argued that the letter violated the academic freedom of Georgetown professors and unfairly retaliated against Georgetown students for freedoms that fall under the First Amendment.
“Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution,” Treanor wrote.
Treanor’s response garnered national headlines, with a USA Today columnist writing that if Democratic lawmakers were smart, “they’d pay attention to the way the dean of Georgetown University’s law school just took a Trump-loving U.S. attorney to the legal woodshed.”
In a statement to the Voice, a university spokesperson reaffirmed Treanor’s assertion that Martin’s letter violates the First Amendment, defending Georgetown’s right to maintain its current curriculum.
“The letter inquires about Georgetown’s curriculum and classroom teaching, which is protected by the First Amendment,” the spokesperson wrote. “Restricting or suppressing legally protected speech would contradict the First Amendment, contravene the University’s mission, and undermine the educational experience that prepares students to navigate an increasingly complex world.”
Martin’s letter comes as President Trump, a former GULC parent, and his administration have taken aim at diversity policies in higher education nationwide. A recent letter from the Department of Education directed universities to remove any “race-based preferences” in their policies, including multicultural graduation ceremonies, race-based scholarships, and living learning communities for members of shared racial or ethnic identities.
If universities did not remove these programs, the Department of Education letter warned, they could lose federal funding. The lack of clarity around what policies are included in “DEI” has created uncertainty for universities and policymakers.
“Their definition of DEI is hopelessly vague,” David Super, a GULC professor, said. “They’re talking about some things that are completely unobjectionable, some things that are controversial, and some things that probably don’t exist at all, all under that one heading, which is irresponsible.”
In Super’s Property Law class, he teaches cases like Johnson v. McIntosh with a critical lens. The 1823 Supreme Court case—still in effect today—ruled that Native Americans have only a “right of occupancy” to their lands, meaning they can live on and use their lands but do not have full ownership or the right to sell them to anyone except the U.S. government. The ruling served as a legal precedent for the widespread dispossession of Native American lands, cementing it as one of the most important property law decisions in U.S. history.
Super highlights the racist and colonialist language used in the case to allow his students to fully interrogate the impact property laws can have on different groups.
“I can’t do a competent job of teaching property and teaching my students to think about property without teaching Johnson v. McIntosh,” Super said. “I believe that much of what is said in Johnson v. McIntosh is deeply offensive, and my First Amendment rights and my rights as a scholar and academic give me the right to criticize Johnson v. McIntosh.”
Today, Super questions whether the USAO-DC would retaliate against his students for sitting in the classroom while he teaches the case.
Martin has also come under fire for his actions in the past months. Before Martin’s letter was made public on March 6, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary council to investigate Martin, alleging that he has abused his new powers by threatening political opponents.
In a statement shared with the Voice, the Coalition for Justice, a group of 13 GULC student organizations formed in response to the Trump administration’s attacks on human and civil rights, condemned Martin’s letter.
“Not only is the threat against Georgetown Law unconstitutional, but Interim U.S. Attorney Martin’s demand to eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion from our institution is absurd, nonsensical, and unimplementable. This is White Supremacy in action,” the statement reads.
The Coalition argued that GULC students and Georgetown’s administration have a responsibility to stand up to the Trump administration.
“In times like these, we must hold the line against tyranny—even if it feels impossible, even if we are alone, even as our own country’s leaders stand against us. Now is the time to stand strong against fascism,” the statement concludes.
While Martin’s letter and Treanor’s response play out on the national stage, Georgetown students worry about the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on their careers and livelihoods. .
When Ezinma Okusogu (LAW ’26) read the news and saw her own university in the headlines, she was surprised. But she realized that the threats made to Georgetown by the USAO-DC weren’t only about Georgetown—rather, she believes they were a test.
“People who are educated at Georgetown have a lot of impact on our country. So I think if this play at Georgetown was able to be successful, that would have had a very chilling effect for the rest of the law schools in the country, in the legal industry. So I think it was strategic,” Okusogu said.
GULC students are no strangers to the direct impacts of federal directives over the past few months. Isaiah Boyd (LAW ’25) was driven to study law after seeing the impacts of affordable housing programs run through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) while growing up in Los Angeles. Boyd had been working at HUD through late January, and was planning on working there post-graduation.
“I had planned to go to HUD afterwards, through the [Legal] Honors Program, and figured I’d spend my years there developing the skill set to continue to promote affordable housing work, and then we had a hiring freeze,” Boyd explained.
Due to the federal hiring freeze, which bans the hiring of new employees in almost all federal positions until April, Boyd and many other GULC students looking for federal work have had to suddenly pivot. Martin’s letter singling out Georgetown students has only added to the fear and stress for students seeking federal work, GULC students told the Voice.
Over the past months, Ceniza has seen her classmates’ post-graduation plans morph as the federal hiring landscape has rapidly changed.
“People who have spent their law school career wanting to work in public service, because of the current climate, are turning away from those opportunities,” Ceniza explained. “They are opting out or they have been fired or they have had their offers rescinded.”
As a professor, Super has watched his students go through the same.
“A significant number of my students worked for the federal government, and a significant number of them have been laid off, so the jobs they were expecting to support them as they studied to become lawyers in the future have now vanished, and their ability to support themselves and to follow through with their career plans are very much jeopardized,” he said.
Beyond the impact on students’ employment prospects, Ceniza fears for how the American people may suffer.
“Georgetown Law students and lawyers and folks who are justice-minded and dedicated to serving the public good are going to be discouraged, but more importantly [it] is the real American people, the real everyday people that are gonna be affected by this,” Ceniza said.
Currently, the federal workforce is estimated to shrink by as many as 100,000 jobs due to Trump administration layoffs that have taken place just since inauguration. A shrinking federal workforce is already projected to limit the accessibility of government resources such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Veterans Affairs benefits.
Many students also emphasized how programs that may fall under the category of “DEI” were instrumental to their undergraduate and law school experience.
Annaelle Lafontant (SFS ’23, LAW ’26), a Vice President of GULC’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA), also attended Georgetown for undergrad. She attributes a piece of her success at Georgetown to programs that have helped her navigate unfamiliar spaces.
“I have been at Georgetown since I was 18, and the reason that I’ve been able to thrive at Georgetown is because of these programs, whether it was the CMEA [Center for Multicultural Equity and Access] in undergrad, Black House, the CCC [Caribbean Culture Circle], and now as a law student, the RISE pre-orientation program and the Black Law Student Association,” she said.
Several students who spoke to the Voice emphasized the role that RISE, a GULC program for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, played in helping them adjust to law school. The pre-orientation program prepares students with skills, hands-on experience, and mentorship to navigate law school and beyond.
“I did not have lawyers in my family,” Lafontant said. “I’m the first person in my family to go to college in the United States, and without programs like the CMEA to have support, or having RISE on Georgetown Law’s campus as a point of support, I don’t know that I would have been able to navigate these systems that were so foreign to me.”
Daniel Webster (LAW ’25), co-president of BLSA, has seen some criticism of DEI programs stem from underlying questions on whether Black students deserve their place at elite universities.
“Our mere presence is sometimes infuriating and scary to people who are currently trying to attack and dismantle systems that go against white supremacy,” Webster said.
Webster grew up in Marion, Ark. His path to Georgetown Law wasn’t easy, but paved with sacrifice and hard work.
“I came from a super small town, was born to a teen mom, and grew up poor. I then made it through high school, graduated with honors, was captain of the soccer team, and then I made it to college. I paid my own way through college. I escaped with no debt, and my family could not help me, and I did that all on my own, and then I applied to Georgetown Law, and I got in,” Webster said.
For him, the insinuation that he didn’t earn his place in law school is not only offensive, but laughable.
“And I don’t think that you can say with a straight face that I, stacked up to any mediocre white applicant, do not deserve my spot here at Georgetown,” Webster added.
After the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down affirmative action in university admissions, Lafontant said she’s seen the number of Black GULC students in BLSA decrease by more than half. In a time of decreasing visibility for Black students on GULC’s campus, students emphasized looking at the history of dissent and courage shown by those who came before them.
“We’ve always been questioned or invalidated or had obstacles, we have always had to support one another, so we just tap into the history and tradition of Black resistance by simply existing and refusing to quit,” Webster said.
Lafontant finds solace in looking to the history of student organizing on Georgetown’s campus, referencing the groups of students that came together to form Black House in the 1970s and those who advocated for vital resources for survivors of sexual violence during the 2020 Black Survivor Coalition sit-ins.
With federal directives seeking to roll back civil rights protections such as access to gender affirming healthcare for minors, the ability for immigrants to seek asylum, and the Equal Employment Opportunity rule, Boyd feels a need to honor those that battled for him.
“There’s been a long journey of public servants and lawyers before me that have endured and pushed through a lot worse than what I’m seeing now. I mean, just even having the privilege to have a JD attached to my name was fought for,” he said.
In a time of increasing attacks on college students and the programs that have helped them thrive, students see Martin’s letter as an opportunity for the university to lead the way in protecting DEI. In the face of threats, interviewees stressed the importance of DEI, the students DEI programs support, and the communities it creates. As students look to how the university will continue to respond, Ceniza sees the national attention in the last week as an opportunity for Georgetown to make a stand.
“Georgetown has a really excellent opportunity to be a leader in upholding trust in our judicial system, in our First Amendment and doctrinally as it’s been written, and to stand up against what appears to be erosion of our constitutional norms, and I hope they rise to the occasion,” she said.
