A scholarship once reserved for Black students at a California university is now available to all after a White student and a right-wing nonprofit alleged it violated a federal anti-Ku Klux Klan law.

The case’s use of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, signed into law to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, is a novel approach that attorneys for the plaintiffs touted as a victory for equality and a possible blueprint for future challenges.