A federal judge in Boston on Monday said the termination of National Institutes of Health grants for research on diversity-related topics by President Donald Trump’s administration was “void and illegal,” and accused the government of discriminating against racial minorities and LGBT people.
U.S. District Judge William Young during a non-jury trial said the NIH violated federal law by arbitrarily canceling more than $1 billion in research grants because of their perceived connection to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Young said he was reinstating grants that had been awarded to organizations and Democratic-led states that sued over the terminations. And the judge indicated that as the case proceeds he could issue a more sweeping decision.
“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan. “Any discrimination by our government is so wrong that it requires the court to enjoin it and at an appropriate time, I’m going to do it.”
Referring to the termination of grants for research related to issues involving racial minorities, the judge said he had in four decades on the bench “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable.”
“You are bearing down on people of color because of their color,” the judge said, referring to Trump’s administration. “The Constitution will not permit that.”
Representatives of the NIH and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rachel Meeropol of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the grant recipients who sued, said Young’s ruling applies to hundreds of grants. The plaintiffs include the American Public Health Association, a membership organization for public health researchers, and 16 states led by Massachusetts.
The NIH, the world’s leading funder of biomedical and behavioral research, has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling about $9.5 billion and an additional $2.6 billion in contracts since Trump took office in January, according to a letter that dozens of NIH employees signed onto last week protesting the cuts.
The funding cuts are part of Trump’s wide-ranging actions to reshape the government, slash federal spending and end government support for DEI programs and transgender healthcare. The administration’s plans to cut 10,000 jobs at health agencies including NIH have been temporarily blocked by another federal judge.
Trump also has signed a series of executive orders requiring agencies to ensure grant funds do not promote “gender ideology” and to end support of what it sees as “discriminatory” DEI programs. Conservative critics of DEI programs have portrayed them as discriminatory against white people and certain others.
In line with Trump’s policy agenda, the NIH has instructed staff to terminate grant funding for studies related to DEI programs, transgender issues, COVID-19 and ways to curb vaccine hesitancy, and grants that could potentially benefit Chinese universities.
The trial that Young held on Monday concerned only some of the claims in the consolidated lawsuits over the cuts. The judge will consider others later.
Young said he would give the parties an opportunity to present further evidence before he rules on those claims and decides whether to reinstate grants beyond those awarded to the plaintiffs.
The NIH grant terminations, as well as a slowdown in approving and renewing grants, have reverberated through universities across the nation, many of which have faced losing the vast majority of their research budgets.
In response, universities implemented hiring freezes, travel restrictions, class size reductions, furloughs and layoffs.
Many colleges depend on NIH grants for the majority of their research budgets. The University of Washington, a top public university for biomedical research, for example, said it had received about 1,220 grants from NIH and about $648 million in funding last fiscal year, according to court filings.
Students and faculty at the university said the disruption to grant funding has touched off a brain drain from the U.S., as researchers are increasingly leaving for positions abroad. The slowdown have also endangered long-running studies, including a program to bank and study Alzheimer’s patients’ brains.
The Trump administration has tried to cut other key sources of research funding.
In February, Angel Kelley, a U.S. district judge, blocked a rule that would have vastly limited how much the government paid out for the indirect costs of research like equipment, maintenance, utilities and support staff. The administration had estimated that the move would cut about $4 billion in funding to research centers.
