Liberty University sues Va. Gov. Ralph Northam for 'discrimination'

The university filed a civil action suit in federal court against both Northam as well as Peter Blake, who is the director of the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia, the agency in charge of administering the long-standing Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program. VTAG is a state program that provides financial aid to Virginia college students attending private nonprofit colleges.

The program awarded tuition grants to 23,000 students for the 2020-21 school year, which is the first year that students enrolled in "online" or "distance learning" programs were ineligible.

The Democrat-controlled General Assembly, along with Northam, implemented changes making incoming Virginia resident students enrolled exclusively in online programs ineligible for the grant. The change does not apply to students who were forced to shift their studies online as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liberty University has one of the largest online presences in the country and has been a top recipient of this grant in past years, ranking in the top 1 percent of online schools and universities for academic quality, according to Bestcolleges.com.

The lawsuit noted that Liberty is also one of the largest Christian universities and the second-largest private not-for-profit university in the world, adding that it enrolls over 100,000 students, including more than 25,000 residents of Virginia.

The school filed the lawsuit on the basis that the action by the legislature and the governor violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. The lawsuit asserted that the difference between “online” and “place-based” education is arbitrary because no difference exists between the quality and content of the education received.