LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Thu, July 24, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to cut hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to roll back federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The Justice Department argued a federal judge in Massachusetts was wrong to block the National Institutes of Health from making $783 million worth of cuts to align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
U.S. District Judge William Young found that the abrupt cancellations ignored long-held government rules and standards.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, also said the cuts amounted to “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”
“I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young said at a hearing last month. An appeals court left the ruling in place.
The ruling came in lawsuits filed by 16 attorneys general, public-health advocacy groups and some affected scientists. His decision addressed only a fraction of the hundreds of NIH research projects that have been cut.
The Trump administration’s appeal also takes aim at nearly two dozen cases over funding.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer pointed to a 5-4 decision on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket from April that allowed cuts to teacher training programs to go forward, one of multiple recent victories for the president at the nation's highest court. The order shows that district judges shouldn’t be hearing those cases at all, but rather sending them to federal claims court, he argued.
“Those decisions reflect quintessential policy judgments on hotly contested issues that should not be subject to judicial second-guessing. It is hardly irrational for agencies to recognize—as members of this Court have done—that paeans to 'diversity' often conceal invidious racial discrimination,” he wrote.
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Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to let it cut NIH grants
FILE - A healthcare worker prepares a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)
Melissa Quinn
Thu, July 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM MDT
Washington — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to give it the green light to cancel hundreds of grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health because they were tied to issues like gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to halt a lower court decision that ordered the NIH to reinstate the grants and required the Trump administration to continue paying out roughly $783 million in awards. The administration had decided that the grants did not align with its policy objectives.
The grants were canceled in response to executive orders signed by Mr. Trump soon after he returned to the White House that directed federal agencies to terminate awards and contracts that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — and gender identity research activities and programs.
NIH began ending the grants that it said did not match the administration's policy priorities in February, and in April, 16 states, as well as research and advocacy groups, a union and researchers filed lawsuits challenging the cancellations.
The plaintiffs asked the federal district court in Massachusetts to block NIH from terminating any grants and order the agency to restore any awards that had already been axed.
The district court last month ruled in favor of the research entities after holding a bench trial in the cases, finding that NIH engaged in "no reasoned decision-making" in the rollout of the grant terminations. U.S. District Judge William Young, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, tossed out the challenged directives.
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to pause the district court's decision, which it declined to do.
In the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, Sauer said its request for relief gives it a chance to "stop errant district courts from continuing to disregard" its decisions.
Sauer pointed to an April order from the Supreme Court that cleared the way for the Department of Education to cancel millions of dollars in grants that it said funded programs that involve DEI initiatives. The high court said in that order that the Trump administration was likely to succeed in showing that the federal district court that oversaw that case lacked jurisdiction to order the payment of money under a federal law governing the agency rulemaking process.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to cut hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to roll back federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The Justice Department argued a federal judge in Massachusetts was wrong to block the National Institutes of Health from making $783 million worth of cuts to align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
U.S. District Judge William Young found that the abrupt cancellations ignored long-held government rules and standards.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, also said the cuts amounted to “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”
“I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young said at a hearing last month. An appeals court left the ruling in place.
The ruling came in lawsuits filed by 16 attorneys general, public-health advocacy groups and some affected scientists. His decision addressed only a fraction of the hundreds of NIH research projects that have been cut.
The Trump administration’s appeal also takes aim at nearly two dozen cases over funding.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer pointed to a 5-4 decision on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket from April that allowed cuts to teacher training programs to go forward, one of multiple recent victories for the president at the nation's highest court. The order shows that district judges shouldn’t be hearing those cases at all, but rather sending them to federal claims court, he argued.
“Those decisions reflect quintessential policy judgments on hotly contested issues that should not be subject to judicial second-guessing. It is hardly irrational for agencies to recognize—as members of this Court have done—that paeans to 'diversity' often conceal invidious racial discrimination,” he wrote.
___
Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to let it cut NIH grants
FILE - A healthcare worker prepares a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)
Melissa Quinn
Thu, July 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM MDT
Washington — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to give it the green light to cancel hundreds of grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health because they were tied to issues like gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to halt a lower court decision that ordered the NIH to reinstate the grants and required the Trump administration to continue paying out roughly $783 million in awards. The administration had decided that the grants did not align with its policy objectives.
The grants were canceled in response to executive orders signed by Mr. Trump soon after he returned to the White House that directed federal agencies to terminate awards and contracts that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — and gender identity research activities and programs.
NIH began ending the grants that it said did not match the administration's policy priorities in February, and in April, 16 states, as well as research and advocacy groups, a union and researchers filed lawsuits challenging the cancellations.
The plaintiffs asked the federal district court in Massachusetts to block NIH from terminating any grants and order the agency to restore any awards that had already been axed.
The district court last month ruled in favor of the research entities after holding a bench trial in the cases, finding that NIH engaged in "no reasoned decision-making" in the rollout of the grant terminations. U.S. District Judge William Young, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, tossed out the challenged directives.
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to pause the district court's decision, which it declined to do.
In the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, Sauer said its request for relief gives it a chance to "stop errant district courts from continuing to disregard" its decisions.
Sauer pointed to an April order from the Supreme Court that cleared the way for the Department of Education to cancel millions of dollars in grants that it said funded programs that involve DEI initiatives. The high court said in that order that the Trump administration was likely to succeed in showing that the federal district court that oversaw that case lacked jurisdiction to order the payment of money under a federal law governing the agency rulemaking process.
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