The Supreme Court lifted a lower-court order and allowed the Trump administration to proceed with terminating $783m in NIH grants tied to diversity, equity and inclusion priorities. The decision was issued 5-4 and permits grant cancellations while a legal challenge brought by researchers and 16 states continues in a lower court. Plaintiffs contend the terminations will cause severe losses in public health and human life. The NIH is the world's largest funder of biomedical research, and the cuts reflect the administration's broader effort to reshape government spending and end support for DEI and gender-ideology programs.
The highest court in the US has ruled that the Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of research funding on breast cancer, HIV prevention and suicide, among other issues, in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. In a 5-4 decision issued on Thursday, the Supreme Court lifted a judge's order blocking $783m worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to align with Republican President Donald Trump's priorities.
The justices granted the Justice Department's request to lift Boston-based US District Judge William Young's decision in June that the grant terminations violated federal law, while a legal challenge brought by researchers and 16 US states plays out in a lower court. The order marks the latest Supreme Court win for Trump and allows the administration to forge ahead with cancelling hundreds of grants while the lawsuit continues to unfold.
The plaintiffs, including states and public-health advocacy groups, have argued that the cuts will inflict incalculable losses in public health and human life. The NIH is the world's largest funder of biomedical research. The cuts are part of Trump's wide-ranging actions to reshape the US government, slash federal spending and end government support for programmes aimed at promoting diversity or gender ideology that the administration opposes.
Collection
[
|
...
]