NEH grants row: Judge halts Trump admin's push for grant cancellations; cites First Amendment breach
Judge Colleen McMahon, of the US district court for the southern district of New York, ordered the government to pause all cancellations and barred the reallocation of associated funds until a full trial determines the legality of the move.
In her ruling, Judge McMahon wrote that the 'defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients' perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas.
This is most evident by the citation in the Termination Notices to executive orders purporting to combat 'Radical Indoctrination' and 'Radical … DEI Programs,' and to further 'Biological Truth,'' AP reported.
One of the affected grants had been awarded to a professor writing about the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s. According to McMahon, the government had flagged the project on an internal spreadsheet titled 'Copy of NEH Active Grants' for its connection to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) themes.
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She noted that other history projects listed on the spreadsheet were also cancelled partly due to similar DEI associations.
'Far be it from this Court to deny the right of the Administration to focus NEH priorities on American history and exceptionalism as the year of our semiquincentennial approaches,' the judge wrote.
'Such refocusing is ordinarily a matter of agency discretion. But agency discretion does not include discretion to violate the First Amendment.
Nor does not give the Government the right to edit history.'
Judge McMahon also pointed out that some grants were cancelled simply because they had been approved during the Biden administration.
The Authors Guild filed a class action lawsuit in May against the NEH and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arguing that grants legally approved by Congress had been abruptly terminated. The lawsuit claims DOGE 'brought the core work of the humanities councils to a screeching halt' by shutting down its grant programme this spring.
Their case is one of several brought by humanities organisations, historical societies, and research and library associations in an effort to stop federal funding cuts and preserve cultural and academic institutions, according to AP.
McMahon stressed that her injunction is narrowly focused, saying it 'does nothing more' than maintain the status quo while the case is heard.
However, she rejected a temporary injunction request from the American Council of Learned Societies and dismissed several of their claims. Their suit also included the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association.
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