Supreme Court Rules That Trump Can Slash DEI Programs at NIH

The Supreme Court has given the green light to the Trump administration to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in federal health research grants that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or “gender ideology extremism.”

By a 5–4 vote, the justices lifted a lower-court order that ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to restore funding for more than 1,700 grants. Chief Justice John Roberts, notably, joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, however, sided with the majority in agreement that the administration can withhold the funding, but she joined Roberts and the liberals to leave intact another part of the lower court’s ruling that voided NIH guidance enforcing Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.

Since the ruling halts immediate funding, the administration is likely to count it as another win in the series of emergency appeals it has brought to the high court.

In a concurring opinion, Barrett wrote that the case should have been filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington rather than in district court. That court hears disputes involving federal contracts and could award damages later, but would not provide immediate relief.

The decision reversed U.S. District Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, who in June ordered NIH to restore the grants after lawsuits from researchers and 16 Democratic-led states. Young used unusually sharp language, declaring: “This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out.”

It is unclear why the judge legally compelled the Trump administration to fund programs to “raise awareness” about LGBTQ issues or why that is tantamount to “discrimination.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, faulted Young for ignoring a prior Supreme Court ruling from April that had let the administration cancel $64 million in teaching-related grants.

“When this Court issues a decision, it constitutes a precedent that commands respect in lower courts,” Gorsuch wrote.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed a 21-page dissent, calling the decision “bizarre” and criticizing her colleagues for “sending plaintiffs on a likely futile, multivenue quest for complete relief.” She added that the ruling could force medical labs to “euthanize” animals used in ongoing research. Jackson also warned that the court appears to favor the Trump administration, writing: “Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”

In its filings, the administration said Young’s order compelled NIH to “pay out over $783 million in grants.” Grantees disputed that figure as “invented out of whole cloth.”

Solicitor General John Sauer defended the cuts, pointing to grants focused on “intersectional, multilevel and multidimensional structural racism for English- and Spanish-speaking populations” and “anti-racist healing in nature.” He said a “comprehensive internal review” determined that the grants violated one or more of President Trump’s executive orders issued after his return to office in January — two targeting DEI programs and one affirming “the immutable biological reality of sex.”

Sauer also argued that federal law directs such disputes to the Court of Federal Claims. That position ultimately carried the day with the majority.

The Supreme Court stressed that Thursday’s ruling is not a final decision on the legality of the grant cancellations but allows the administration to withhold funding while litigation continues.

The Trump administration has appealed Young’s decision to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which had declined to put his ruling on hold.

The Supreme Court’s decision does not settle the legality of the grant cancellations, but it gives the Trump administration the green light to press ahead for now. The case will continue in lower courts, but until then, the administration can wield its executive authority to reshape federal research funding on its own terms

The post Supreme Court Rules That Trump Can Slash DEI Programs at NIH appeared first on Conservative Brief.