US judge declares Trump's cuts to NIH grants ‘illegal'
A Massachusetts federal judge has declared that cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants made by the administration of US President Donald Trump are 'illegal' and 'void,' and ordered that many of the grants be restored.
In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge William Young vacated the terminations that began in late February and said the NIH violated federal law by arbitrarily cancelling more than $1bn in research grants because of their perceived connection to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Young told the court there could be little doubt the cuts represent 'racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBTQ community', according to quotes published on X by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.
In April, a group of researchers sued the NIH, saying hundreds of critical research projects were halted due to an 'ideological purge'. The plaintiffs argued that the reasons given for the terminations – connections with 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' and 'gender identity' – were vague and lacking in concrete explanation.
Terminated grants included programmes focusing on women, racial minorities and the health of health of gay, lesbian and transgender people, but also included studies on cancer, youth suicide and bone health. The government has argued that the court lacks jurisdiction and that the NIH has discretion to set its own priorities.
Young said he was reinstating grants that had been awarded to organisations and Democratic-led states that sued over the terminations. And the judge strongly suggested that as the case proceeds, he could issue a more sweeping decision.
Young, who was appointed by US President Ronald Reagan, offered a harsh rebuke to the government, saying that in his 40 years on the bench, he had 'never seen evidence of racial discrimination like this'.
The ruling comes almost a week after Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), admitted that the Trump administration had gone too far in slashing biomedical research grants and said efforts were under way to restore some of the funding
Bhattacharya made the remarks Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing examining both recent cuts to his agency and deeper reductions proposed by the White House in next year's budget.
'I didn't take this job to terminate grants,' said the physician and health economist, who left a professorship at Stanford University to join the Trump administration.
'I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people,' he said, adding that he had created an appeals process for scientists and laboratories whose research was impacted, and that the NIH had already 'reversed many' of the cuts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
21 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
MAGA is split over Israel and Iran. Which way will Trump go?
The Take Could a US strike against Iran threaten support for President Donald Trump? How did MAGA become Trump's biggest opponent of a US strike on Iran? The Republican base is split over Trump's rhetoric about getting involved in another foreign war. Conservative stalwarts like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are pushing back. Could a US strike on Iran be a blow against Trump at home? Video Duration 22 minutes 10 seconds 22:10 Video Duration 20 minutes 57 seconds 20:57 Video Duration 23 minutes 15 seconds 23:15 Video Duration 22 minutes 55 seconds 22:55 Video Duration 20 minutes 48 seconds 20:48 Video Duration 18 minutes 26 seconds 18:26 Video Duration 21 minutes 42 seconds 21:42
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says US intelligence ‘wrong' about Iran not building nuclear bomb
United States President Donald Trump has said his director of national intelligence was 'wrong' when she testified that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not re-authorised the country's suspended nuclear weapons programme. The comments come after Trump earlier this week cast doubt on Tulsi Gabbard's March 25 report to Congress, in which she reiterated the US intelligence community's assessment. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters, 'I don't care' that the intelligence community's finding contradicted his own claims, saying Iran was in the late stages of developing a nuclear weapon. But speaking on Friday, Trump went further. A reporter asked, 'What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community said they have no evidence.' The president responded, 'Then my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?' 'Your DNI [director of national intelligence], Tulsi Gabbard,' the reporter replied. 'She's wrong,' Trump said. It is extremely rare for a US president to openly contradict the country's intelligence community, with critics accusing Trump of flagrantly disregarding evidence to justify potential direct US involvement in the fighting, according to Al Jazeera's senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. 'This is not just one person, one team saying something,' Bishara said. 'It's the entire intelligence community in the United States. That he would dismiss them … it's just astounding.' Speaking on Friday, Trump also appeared to downplay the prospect of the US brokering a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel, saying he 'might' support such a deal, while adding, 'Israel's doing well in terms of war, and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well.' 'It's hard to make that request right now. When someone's winning, it's harder than when they're losing,' he added. Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Heidi Zhou Castro noted that Trump was 'really making a point that he's not going to make an effort to ask Israel to ease up on its aerial bombing of Iranian targets'. 'It seems that Trump is very squarely on Israel's side as things are progressing, and … it appears that he is not leaning towards the diplomacy route, though, again, he is giving himself that two weeks' time to make a final decision,' she said. Trump on Thursday said he would take two weeks to decide the US response to the conflict. Experts say the decision would likely be transformative. The US is seen as one of the few countries with the leverage to pressure Israel to step back from the brink of wider-scale regional war. At the same time, the involvement of the US military is seen as key to Israel's stated mission of completely dismantling Iran's nuclear programme, which hinges on destroying the underground Fordow enrichment plant. A successful attack on the facility would require both Washington's 30,000-pound (13,000kg) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator and the B-2 bombers needed to deliver it. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump also downplayed the potential role of European countries in de-escalating the situation. That came hours after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met the top diplomats from France, the UK, Germany and the EU in Geneva. 'Europe is not going to be able to help,' the US president said.
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US Supreme Court declines to speed up decision to take up fight over tariff
The court declined to fast-track the review of the dispute over Trump having legal power to impose broad tariffs. The United States Supreme Court has declined to speed up its consideration of whether to take up a challenge to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs even before lower courts have ruled in the dispute. The Supreme Court denied on Friday a request by a family-owned toy company, Learning Resources, that filed the legal challenge against Trump's tariffs to expedite the review of the dispute by the nation's top judicial body. The company, which makes educational toys, won a court ruling on May 29 that Trump cannot unilaterally impose tariffs using the emergency authority he had claimed. That ruling is currently on hold, leaving the tariffs in place for now. Learning Resources asked the Supreme Court to take the rare step of immediately hearing the case to decide the legality of the tariffs, effectively leapfrogging the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, where the case is pending. Two district courts have ruled that Trump's tariffs are not justified under the law he cited, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Both of those cases are on appeal. No court has yet backed the sweeping emergency tariff authority Trump has claimed.
