Apparently when President Trump says “illegal DEI,” he means lawful and common-sense efforts to integrate public schools. At least, that’s the takeaway from the Department of Education’s new investigation against Fairfax County Public Schools.

Trump officials claim Fairfax County violated federal law when it adopted an admissions policy designed to “change the demographic make up” of its most competitive high school. This theory, which equates integration with segregation, dates back to Barry Goldwater, who remarked in 1964 that “the Constitution is color-blind ... and so it is just as wrong to compel children to attend certain schools for the sake of so-called integration as for the sake of segregation.”

It seems Trump agrees. Unfortunately for him, the Supreme Court does not.

Just last year, the court declined to overturn a ruling for Fairfax County. As I explained at the time, that decision made sense. Even as the Supreme Court has shifted hard right, decades of conservative case law — including from Chief Justice John Roberts — condone racial goals such as diversity, equality and inclusion.

The new investigation tracks Trump’s disregard for courts and his tendency toward bluster over substance. But in important respects, it also exposes that Trump’s war on DEI lacks any moral and legal basis.

Some context is helpful. For decades, Black advocates sought to desegregate Thomas Jefferson High School, one of the nation’s top-ranked public schools. As recently as 2012, the

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