WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge on Monday determined it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel hundreds Research grantsadded that Cut will raise serious questions about racism.
District Judge William Young of Massachusetts said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and whimsical” and that if they suddenly cancelled a grant deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion, they failed to follow long-standing government rules and standards.
At Monday’s hearing on two cases calling for the recovery of grants, the judge urged government lawyers to provide a formal definition of DEI, thus questioning how grants could be cancelled if they were designed to study health disparities as directed by Congress.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, addressed what he called the “dark side” of the incident, calling it “explicitly clear” that the “racism and discrimination against the American LGBTQ community” behind government actions.
“I have never seen such government racism on the bench forty years,” Young added. He concluded the hearing Monday and said, “There’s no shame.”
During his remarks to close the hearing, the judge said he would issue his written order soon.
Young’s decision addresses only a small portion of the hundreds of NIH research projects that the Trump administration has cut. This is being addressed specifically in two lawsuits filed separately this spring by 16 lawyers, public health advocacy groups and some affected scientists. The full count was not available immediately.
Young said the funds need to be restored, but Monday’s action was a temporary step. The judgment is expected to be appealed if it is formally issued. The Trump administration immediately did not respond to a request for comment.
Although the original lawsuit did not specifically assert racism, they said the new NIH policy bans “studying certain politically hated subjects.” This month’s filing after the lawsuit is merged, The lawyer said The NIH did not underscore true concerns about research into hundreds of cancelled research projects, but instead sent “end of boilerplate letters” to the university.
The topics of the study were broadly included cardiovascular health, sexually transmitted diseases, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and alcohol abuse in minors. The lawyer cited the project to track drug behavior. He tracked how medicines work in people from diverse ancestor backgrounds, saying that cuts have more impact than scientists.
A federal lawyer said in a court filing earlier this month that the dismissal of the NIH grant for DEI research was “well inferred,” adding that “the plaintiff may oppose the NIH basis, but that it is arbitrary and not whimsical.” The attorney includes the NIH taking “broad discretion” and determining grants “in cooperation with priorities” and terminating the grant.
On Monday, Justice Department attorney Thomas Port Jr. pointed to 13 examples of minority health grants that the NIH has not cut or renewed in the same period, saying some of the cancellations were justified by the agency’s decision that the research is scientifically unworthy.
For many years, NIH has been the world’s largest public funder for biomedical research.
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The Associated Press School of Health Sciences is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution’s Science and Education Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
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