The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to move forward with major cuts to federal research grants tied to racial minorities and LGBT communities, marking one of the most consequential rulings yet in his push to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In a narrow 5-4 decision, the justices lifted a lower court order that had blocked the terminations, allowing the administration to halt hundreds of millions in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported news agency Reuters. The ruling came after Boston-based US District Judge William Young ruled in June that ending the grants violated federal law. His decision had temporarily protected research projects while a broader legal challenge from 16 states and several researchers made its way through the courts.
The majority, in its unsigned order, suggested the plaintiffs had brought the case in the wrong venue, saying it belonged in the Court of Federal Claims, which typically handles disputes over financial damages against the government. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the three liberal justices in dissent, underscoring how divided the bench was on the issue.
Still, in a separate but equally close 5-4 vote, the Court refused to grant the administration’s request to immediately suspend Young’s broader ruling, which found the NIH’s internal guidance for rejecting DEI- and gender identity-related research unlawful.
The NIH, the world’s largest source of biomedical research funding, has found itself at the centre of Trump’s wider effort to reshape federal priorities, slash spending, and roll back support for programs his administration brands as “gender ideology”. The Justice Department argued that Young’s ruling forced the NIH to continue paying out $783 million in grants that clashed with Trump’s directives.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has issued executive orders directing agencies to eliminate what he calls “low-value and off-mission” research, including studies linked to DEI, gender identity, COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy. The NIH subsequently instructed staff to cancel funding for projects falling under those categories.
Young’s rebuke in June was unusually forceful. The Reagan-appointed judge described the cuts as “breathtakingly arbitrary and capricious”, stressing that they amounted to both racial and LGBTQ discrimination. At one hearing, he went further, calling the record before him proof of “palpable racial discrimination” and labelling the targeting of LGBTQ-related health research “appalling”.
The lawsuits challenging the cuts were brought separately by a coalition of states, most led by Democrats, and by groups including the American Public Health Association and individual scientists. They argued that the terminated grants spanned critical research on breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV prevention, suicide, and depression, all of which disproportionately affect minority communities. Some of the cancelled projects, they noted, had been specifically mandated by Congress to build a more diverse pipeline of biomedical researchers.
Despite Young’s rulings, the Supreme Court’s conservative-leaning majority has generally backed Trump’s policy shifts when challenged in court. With a 6-3 edge on the bench, the administration has repeatedly sought, and often received, the Court’s intervention to override lower-court blocks.
The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals had already refused to pause Young’s order last month. And just weeks ago, the judge warned that if the Supreme Court overturned his ruling, he might convene an emergency hearing to consider imposing a fresh injunction—this time aimed squarely at reinstating parts of the $783 million in research funding terminated over racial and gender identity concerns.
