Washington– A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate funding for diversity-related research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was unlawful, calling it a clear case of discrimination against minority groups.
U.S. District Judge William Young, presiding over a non-jury trial, declared the move “void and illegal,” stating that it violated federal law. The NIH had canceled over $1 billion in research funding on the grounds that it supported diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In his ruling, Judge Young, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said the decision targeted minority-related research unfairly. “I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” he noted from the bench.
Young announced that he would reinstate funding for the Democratic-led states and organizations that filed lawsuits challenging the cuts. “Any discrimination by our government is so wrong that it requires the court to enjoin it,” he said. “At an appropriate time, I’m going to do it.”
The NIH, the world’s largest publicly funded biomedical research institution, provides around 60,000 grants annually to nearly 3,000 universities and hospitals. It has been a frequent target of federal budget cuts during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Since Trump began his second term in January, the NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling approximately $9.5 billion, along with $2.6 billion in canceled contracts, according to media reports.
Judge Young’s ruling marks a significant legal rebuke of the administration’s rollback of DEI-linked funding and underscores growing judicial scrutiny of policies perceived to marginalize minority communities in federally funded programs. (Source: IANS)
