WASHINGTON – A federal judge decided on Monday that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate several hundred research grants was unlawful, highlighting that the cuts bring up concerning issues regarding racial discrimination.
U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts declared that the administration’s handling was “arbitrary and capricious,” failing to adhere to established government protocols and criteria, especially when it suddenly withdrew funding from grants tied to gender identity or diversity, equity, and inclusion.
During a Monday hearing about two cases seeking the reinstatement of these grants, the judge challenged government attorneys to define DEI in detail. He questioned the rationale behind grant cancellations, especially when certain grants were specifically aimed at researching health disparities as directed by Congress.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, went on to address what he called “a darker aspect” to the cases, calling it “palpably clear” that what was behind the government actions was “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”
After 40 years on the bench, “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young added. He ended Monday’s hearing saying, “Have we no shame.”
During his remarks ending the hearing, the judge said he would issue his written order soon.
Young’s decision addresses only a fraction of the hundreds of NIH research projects the Trump administration has cut — those specifically addressed in two lawsuits filed separately this spring by 16 attorneys general, public health advocacy groups and some affected scientists. A full count wasn’t immediately available.
While Young said the funding must be restored, Monday’s action was an interim step as the ruling could be appealed.
The Trump administration is “exploring all legal options” including asking the judge to stay the ruling or appealing, said Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.
“HHS stands by its decision to end funding for research that prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes for the American people,” he said in an email.
While the original lawsuits didn’t specifically claim racial discrimination, they said the new NIH policies prohibited “research into certain politically disfavored subjects.” In a filing this month after the lawsuits were consolidated, lawyers said the NIH did not highlight genuine concerns with the hundreds of canceled research projects studies, but instead sent “boilerplate termination letters” to universities.
The topics of research ranged widely, including cardiovascular health, sexually transmitted infections, depression, Alzheimer’s and alcohol abuse in minors, among other things. Attorneys cited projects such as one tracking how medicines may work differently in people of ancestrally diverse backgrounds, and said the cuts affected more than scientists — such as potential harm to patients in a closed study of suicide treatment.
Lawyers for the federal government said in a court filing earlier this month that NIH grant terminations for DEI studies were “sufficiently reasoned,” adding later that “plaintiffs may disagree with NIH’s basis, but that does not make the basis arbitrary and capricious.” The NIH, lawyers argued, has “broad discretion” to decide on and provide grants “in alignment with its priorities” — which includes ending grants.
Monday, Justice Department lawyer Thomas Ports Jr. pointed to 13 examples of grants related to minority health that NIH either hadn’t cut or had renewed in the same time period — and said some of the cancellations were justified by the agency’s judgement that the research wasn’t scientifically valuable.
The NIH has long been the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.
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