Federal judge blasts ‘war’ against DEI by federal health agencies
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Jul 4
- 2 min read
By ZACH MONTAGUE
After blocking the Trump administration’s termination of some grants for health and science research last month, a federal judge released a lengthy explanation earlier this week of why he viewed the cancellations as acts of discrimination based on race, gender and sexual identity.
In a 103-page filing, Judge William G. Young of U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts retraced the history of the grant cancellations that unfolded this year, sprinkling in copies of emails and internal memos that showed officials outlining a plan to end funding for any research that fit the White House’s fluid understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, known as DEI. The judge described as a “newly-minted war” by the National Institutes of Health against “undefined concepts” related to DEI, which he added had grown to include other topics such as vaccine hesitancy, COVID, and climate change.
Young described an “unmistakable pattern of discrimination against women’s health issues” in the grants and awards that were suspended this year by the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as “pervasive racial discrimination.”
Young’s ruling last month voided the termination of hundreds of grants that focused on the health of Black communities, women and LGBTQ+ people. He ordered the government to restore much of the funding pending an appeal.
Although the judge’s initial ruling covered the termination of some grants related to transgender issues, he wrote Wednesday that because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June upholding a Tennessee law prohibiting some medical treatments for transgender youths, he was likely unable to block a policy of withholding science funding in that area.
Young’s opinion came in a pair of related lawsuits led by a coalition of Democratic states and the American Public Health Association.
In one section, he spotlighted the fallout at Columbia University, which, he concluded, had its research funding slashed as punishment for student demonstrations last year over the war in the Gaza Strip.
“Separate to the categorized grant terminations, there is a curious exchange in the administrative record concerning the NIH weighing in on the Columbia University campus unrest,” he wrote. “As best the court can discern, the NIH was being required to come down hard on Columbia University and cancel their grants on the basis of campus unrest.”
“There is no evidence in the record that this had ever been done before,” he added.
Young took note of the Justice Department’s argument that the changes were a reflection of shifting priorities after an election, and that “with a new administration comes an appropriate opportunity to assess and reassess the agency’s activities.”
But he wrote that the campaign by federal health agencies to undercut certain fields of science based on an ideological position strayed outside the law.
“The public officials in their haste to appease the executive, simply moved too fast and broke things, including the law,” he wrote.
Federal health agencies’ campaign against DEI has been publicly criticized by a federal judge as biased and harmful to scientific and public health funding. Such actions threaten essential research and undermine trust in our healthcare system. In contrast, individuals also benefit from proactive self-care—services like Laser Skin Resurfacing Redondo Beach offer effective, professional treatments that enhance confidence and promote overall wellness.