Judge sides with states, calling out Trump administration effort to dismantle critical public health and medical research funding
MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul released the following statement regarding a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that blocked the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate hundreds of biomedical research grants, declaring the move “illegal” and “void” and specifically condemning “clear” evidence of discrimination against the LGBTQ community and racial minorities. The judge sided with a coalition of 16 attorneys general who are suing the Trump Administration over its unlawful attempt to disrupt grant funding issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“It is frankly stunning to have an administration trying unlawfully to cancel grants for medical research,” said AG Kaul. “This ruling restores critical funding, enabling research affected by these short-sighted cancellations to go on.”
The lawsuit, filed on April 4, alleged that NIH had terminated large swaths of already-issued grants for projects that are currently underway based on the projects’ perceived connection to “DEI,” “transgender issues,” “vaccine hesitancy,” and other topics disfavored by the current Administration. In boilerplate letters issued to the grants’ recipients, NIH claimed that each cancelled project “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” Siding with the states, Judge William G. Young denounced these actions, stating that he had “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable” in his 40 years on the bench, and that he would “be blind not to call it out.”
Among the institutions harmed by the Trump administration’s funding cuts were Wisconsin universities, which had impacted grants and grant terminations and lost millions of dollars in NIH support for research into infectious diseases, substance use, and health disparities impacting communities of color, women, and LGBTQ populations.
Monday’s court ruling halted the cancellation of funding that has already been awarded to address important public health needs and will allow funding for life-saving medical research to continue. The coalition will be filing a proposed order with the court.
In bringing the lawsuit, AG Kaul was joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
View this press release on the DOJ website here.
