A federal judge in Massachusetts has ruled that hundreds of grants terminated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must be restored immediately, the latest legal victory for groups challenging the Trump administration’s cuts to federal science funding.
In a June 16 statement following the decision, the American Civil Liberties Union, a plaintiff in one of the cases, called the ruling a “major victory for public health.” The June 16 hearing combined two separate cases challenging NIH grant cancellations, one led by the American Public Health Association and the other filed by attorneys general from 16 states.
“The court ruled that NIH’s actions targeting research involving disfavored topics and populations were unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, and therefore void,” the ACLU said. “The court reversed the grant terminations at issue in the case, stating that the government must immediately make the funds available.”
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is “exploring all legal options” in response to the ruling, a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech, including filing an appeal or moving to stay the order.
“HHS stands by its decision to end funding for research that prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes for the American people,” the spokesperson said.
The canceled grants challenged in the cases, which don’t represent all the funding cut by the NIH under Trump, included funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and research into health inequities, according to the APHA’s complaint filing (PDF). The APHA referred to these cuts as an effort by the Trump administration to “stamp out NIH-funded research that addresses topics and populations that they disfavor.”
Both cases sought to challenge the legality of the directives behind the terminations.
After making his decision, U.S. District Court Judge William Young issued a stunning rebuke of the government’s actions.
“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That's what this is,” Young told the courtroom, according to a ProPublica reporter. “It is palpably clear these directives and the set of terminated grants here also are designed to frustrate, to stop research that may bear on the health of Americans. Of our LGBTQ community. That's appalling.”
“Is it true of our society as a whole, have we fallen so low, have we no shame?” Young continued.
The cases decided today are just two of several opposing the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape federal health agencies. In April, a federal judge ordered the NIH to stop capping indirect cost rates on grants at 15%, while Harvard sued to unfreeze more than $2 billion in federal funds.
And in May, California District Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration's recent sweeping layoffs across federal agencies, including HHS.