‘Have we no shame?' Federal judge declares NIH grant terminations ‘void and illegal.'
A group of public health experts and labor unions
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The lawsuit alleges that the NIH broke from its usual science-based review process and launched a 'reckless and illegal purge' to stamp out research on topics and populations that it no longer favored. It alleges that the Trump administration disregarded congressional mandates to fund health disparities research, and violated federal administrative process law by failing to provide scientific reasoning behind the cuts.
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The suit was filed in US District Court in Boston by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the National ACLU, Protect Democracy, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The plaintiffs are individual researchers, Ibis Reproductive Health and International Union, United Automobile, and the Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).
Researchers affected by the cuts include those studying Alzheimer's disease, pregnancy health disparities and HIV prevention, among other topics.
'Today's decision is an important step in protecting public health and allowing critical research to continue. Research that helps us understand and treat serious diseases should be based on science, not politics,' said Brittany Charlton, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a plaintiff in the case. 'This ruling rightly allows important studies that were unfairly stopped to move forward again.'
At Monday's hearing, Young appeared to support researchers opposed to the cuts, expressing confusion and frustration over the criteria the government was using to terminate grants. He pointed to a series of Trump administration directives that made claims that, he argued, did not appear supported or explained. Young said the language in the directives was sometimes so vague that he couldn't determine whether they were based on science.
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'This court finds and rules that the explanations [from the Trump administration for the grant terminations] are bereft of reasoning virtually in their entirety,' Young said. 'These edicts are nothing more than conclusory, unsupported by factual development.'
Young also took issue with Trump administration statements asserting that funding of DEI-related research projects support 'unlawful discrimination.'
'Where's the support for that? Any support? Any rational explanation?' Young asked the attorney for the Department of Justice. 'I see no evidence of that. Point me to ... any particular grant or group of grants being used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race. From what I can see, it's the reverse.'
Chris Serres can be reached at
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