Trump administration appeals to Supreme Court to allow $783 million
research-funding cuts
[July 25, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on
Thursday to allow it to cut hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of
research funding in its push to roll back federal diversity, equity and
inclusion efforts.
The Justice Department argued a federal judge in Massachusetts was wrong
to block the National Institutes of Health from making $783 million
worth of cuts to align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
U.S. District Judge William Young found that the abrupt cancellations
ignored long-held government rules and standards.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, also said the
cuts amounted to “racial discrimination and discrimination against
America’s LGBTQ community.”
“I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young said
at a hearing last month. An appeals court left the ruling in place.
The ruling came in lawsuits filed by 16 attorneys general, public-health
advocacy groups and some affected scientists. His decision addressed
only a fraction of the hundreds of NIH research projects that have been
cut.
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 The Trump administration’s appeal
also takes aim at nearly two dozen cases over funding.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer pointed to a 5-4 decision on the
Supreme Court’s emergency docket from April that allowed cuts to
teacher training programs to go forward, one of multiple recent
victories for the president at the nation's highest court. The order
shows that district judges shouldn’t be hearing those cases at all,
but rather sending them to federal claims court, he argued.
“Those decisions reflect quintessential policy judgments on hotly
contested issues that should not be subject to judicial
second-guessing. It is hardly irrational for agencies to
recognize—as members of this Court have done—that paeans to
'diversity' often conceal invidious racial discrimination,” he
wrote.
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