Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Reinstate Hundreds of NIH Grants
Juliet Schulman-Hall MassLive
A biomedic and a biologist work in a laboratory. (photo: Pedro Vilela/Getty Images)
ALSO SEE: Judge Orders NIH to Restore Cuts to Research Grants Related to Diversity
Judge William Young said at a Monday court hearing in Boston that he has “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” according to Axios.
“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” he said.
Only 367 grants will be restored with this new court order, Axios reported, though 2,282 NIH grants have been terminated, amounting to nearly $3.8 billion of lost funding since June 4, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
An associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Brittany Charlton, is one of those suing. Her funding to study the mental health of young LGBTQ people was cut, affecting a team of 18 researchers and causing students to fear for their safety.
“Judge Young’s words from the bench were unforgettable: ‘Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?’ His outrage captured what so many of us have felt as we watched crucial research cut based not on science but on politics and discrimination,” Charlton told MassLive.
The National Institutes of Health told Charlton that her work was no longer an “agency priority.”
“Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs,” her court filing said, quoting NIH.
The grant terminations are a “quiet dismantling of a generation of future leaders in medicine and public health, and with them, the hope for a more equitable future,” Charlton wrote in a previous court filing.
The lawsuit was filed in April by individual researchers; the American Public Health Association; International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America; and Ibis Reproductive Health.
They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, Protect Democracy and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
