Supreme Court Rules 5-4 Trump Can Slash $783 Million in DEI-Linked NIH Grants – Roberts Sides with Liberals
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 that the Trump Administration may proceed with the termination of $783 million in DEI-linked NIH grants.
Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberal justices – and Amy Coney Barrett actually voted with the conservatives.
Last month The Trump Administration asked the Supreme Court to block a court order from Boston-based Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee. Judge Young previously ordered the NIH to immediately restore the more than 800 grants halted by the Trump Administration.
DOJ Solicitor General John Sauer cited a recently Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Department of Education to block millions of dollars in grants that funded DEI policies.
Sauer told the Supreme Court in a petition that this case “presents a particularly clear case for this Court to intervene and stop errant district courts from continuing to disregard this Court’s rulings.”
According to SCOTUS Blog Saur wrote: “As this Court explained yesterday,” Sauer wrote, “when lower courts face materially identical stay requests, this Court’s emergency orders ‘squarely control[].’ Our judicial system rests on vertical stare decisis” – that is, the idea that lower courts should adhere to the precedents set by higher courts – rather than on “a lower-court free-for-all where individual district judges feel free to elevate their own policy judgements over those of the Executive Branch, and their own legal judgments over those of this Court.”
The Supreme Court lifted the lower court’s order blocking the Trump Administration from terminating the grants.