The Supreme Court lifted an order that stopped President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting $783 million in funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) it deemed advanced DEI or promoted “gender ideology extremism.”
The NIH canceled grants after vowing not to “fund research related to DEI objectives, gender identity, or COVID-19.”
The jurisdiction belongs in the Court of Federal Claims (CFC).
From the opinion (omitted citations):
The application is granted as to the District Court’s judgments vacating the Government’s termination of various research-related grants. The Administrative Procedure Act’s “limited waiver of [sovereign] immunity” does not provide the District Court with jurisdiction to adjudicate claims “based on” the research-related grants or to order relief designed to enforce any “‘obligation to pay money’” pursuant to those grants. And while the loss of money is not typically considered irreparable harm, that changes if the funds “cannot be recouped” and are thus “irrevocably expended.” The Government faces such harm here. The plaintiffs do not state that they will repay grant money if the Government ultimately prevails. Moreover, the plaintiffs’ contention that they lack the resources to continue their research projects without federal funding is inconsistent with the proposition that they have the resources to make the Government whole for money already spent.
Therefore, the majority found that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts does not have jurisdiction for the case.
U.S. District Judge William Young claimed that the cuts discriminated against the LGBT community and felt he had to call out the Trump administration.
Justice Neil Gorsuch snapped back: “Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Court’s decisions, but they are never free to defy them.
Gorsuch reminded Young that in April, SCOTUS granted a stay in a case (Dept. of Ed v. California) that allowed the Trump admin to cut $65 million in teaching grants related to DEI.
But, like this case, the majority issued the stay because the case does not belong in the district court.
Sure, this case is about NIH and the April case is about teaching grants. But Gorsuch said they are not different cases: “The only injury the district court sought to remedy in its judgments stems from the government’s denial of previously awarded discretionary grants. Accordingly, California controls.”
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