Judge upholds in‑state tuition policy

U.S. District Judge Katherine M. Menendez issued the dismissal on March 27, 2026, concluding the government failed to prove Minnesota’s programs discriminated against U.S. citizens. (cbsnews.com(cbsnews.com)) Menendez wrote that Minnesota’s eligibility rule applies to anyone who attended a Minnesota high school for at least three years, which she found makes the statutes residency‑neutral, and she said the federal government lacked standing to sue the governor and attorney general because those officials cannot unilaterally change state law. (cbsnews.com(cbsnews.com)) The Justice Department’s June 25, 2025 complaint had sought to enjoin Minn. Stat. §§135A.043 and 136A.1465 and challenged the North Star Promise program under 8 U.S.C. §1623(a), alleging those statutes confer postsecondary‑education benefits to aliens not lawfully present that are not equally available to U.S. citizens; the complaint is publicly available. (iptp-production.s3.amazonaws.com(iptp-production.s3.amazonaws.com)) Minnesota’s MN Dream Act was passed into law on May 23, 2013, and the state’s North Star Promise began awarding last‑dollar free‑tuition scholarships in Fall 2024 with eligibility rules and an income cap used in outreach materials. (ohe.mn.gov(ohe.mn.gov); ohe.mn.gov(ohe.mn.gov)) The Star Tribune noted the administration’s filing highlighted a tuition gap at the University of Minnesota‑Twin Cities of $18,094 for residents versus $40,556 for out‑of‑state students for the 2025‑26 year, a figure the DOJ used to argue the magnitude of the alleged discrimination. (startribune.com(startribune.com)) Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praised the ruling as a rebuke of the administration’s interpretation of federal law, while the Justice Department’s original press statement at filing invoked that similar statutes “treat Americans like second‑class citizens.” (cbsnews.com(cbsnews.com); justice.gov(justice.gov)) The DOJ has pursued parallel suits this year in Texas and Kentucky; Texas’s litigation produced a rapid injunction in June 2025 that ended that state’s long‑standing in‑state tuition policy, a contrast commentators say makes Menendez’s opinion a likely focal point for appellate strategy and for advocates in the region who called Minnesota’s reasoning a potential model for New England campaigns. (insidehighered.com(insidehighered.com); texastribune.org(texastribune.org); therecord.com(therecord.com)) Vermont has its own recent Education Equity for Immigrant Students law enacted with advocacy from Migrant Justice that guarantees in‑state tuition for state residents regardless of immigration status, a legislative outcome organizers have pointed to when discussing regional strategies in the wake of the Minnesota decision. (migrantjustice.net(migrantjustice.net))