Medical advocacy group Do No Harm filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians for “engaging in racial discrimination.”

The lawsuit challenges the group’s “diversity scholarship,” which the group says will only “be awarded to students of color,” according to the NAEMT website.

“The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians is given the important responsibility of training America’s first responders,” DNH Chairman Stanley Goldfarb said in a press release. “Like all aspects of healthcare, training the best and brightest to provide the best care for patients should be the primary concern of all medical organizations, not the skin color of an EMT. First responders and all medical professionals should be given opportunities, training, and scholarships on the basis of merit.”

The lawsuit points out that white applicants would be excluded from consideration for a scholarship, which allocates $1,250 for educational materials.

While the NAEMT’s own code of ethics for EMS practitioners vows to “provide services based on human need, with compassion and respect for human dignity, unrestricted by consideration of nationality, race, creed, color, or status,” the scholarship appears at odds with that commitment.

“NAEMT is disregarding that pledge. NAEMT is operating a race-based ‘diversity’ scholarship that awards money only to ‘students of color,’” the lawsuit states. “White students are flatly excluded.”

The lawsuit, which was filed in a U.S. district court in Mississippi, goes on to argue that the organization is violating federal anti-discrimination law. It also repeatedly cites Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, in which the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions schemes at universities by stating that race should not be used as a factor in admissions policies.

Prospective students for NAEMT’s scholarship can begin submitting their applications on Feb. 1, and the group will accept them through March 31. Winners of the scholarship will enter a contract with NAEMT, which serves as part of the basis for the Do No Harm lawsuit.

Do No Harm is suing on behalf of a white female member of its organization who, despite meeting other criteria, is rendered ineligible to receive the scholarship due to the color of her skin, according to the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the suit are asking the federal court to rule that NAEMT is violating the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which “protects the equal rights of all persons … to make and enforce contracts without respect to race.”

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It is also asking for the court to block NAEMT permanently from awarding scholarships using its racial criteria.

NAEMT did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.