Supreme Court backs Trump administration termination of $783 million in NIH grants linked to DEI initiatives

By a vote of 5-4, the US Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to allow the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funding source for biomedical research in the world, to terminate $783 million in grants linked to DEI initiatives.

In a brief unsigned order, the court granted a request from the Trump administration to pause a ruling by a federal judge in Massachusetts that required the federal government to continue making the payments. Also by a vote of 5-4, the court left in place a different portion of the judge’s ruling, which had thrown out internal NIH guidance documents describing the agency’s policy priorities.