The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can cut research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
By a vote of 5-4, the court unblocked the $783 million worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health, per the Associated Press.
Five of the court’s six Republican-appointed justices sided with the administration — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch,Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, The Hill reported.
“Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Court’s decisions, but they are never free to defy them,” Gorsuch wrote.
The decision is the latest Supreme Court victory for Trump, the AP reported. It allows the administration to go ahead with the cancellation of hundreds of grants. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the decision is a “significant setback for public health.”
The Justice Department said any funding decisions should not be “subject to judicial second-guessing.” Efforts to promote policies referred to as DEI can “conceal insidious racial discrimination.”
The plaintiffs — which are 16 Democratic state attorneys general and public-health advocacy groups — unsuccessfully argued research grants are different from the teacher-training contracts and couldn’t be sent to the claims court.
They claim defunding studies halfway through stunts research, ruins data already collected and “harms the country’s potential for scientific breakthroughs by disrupting scientists’ work in the middle of their careers.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a lengthy dissent on the matter.
“This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins,” she wrote, referring to the fictional game in the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes.”
“The NIH moved in February to terminate grants that do not align with President Trump’s priorities, including those related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs,” per The Hill.
