Judge orders NIH to restore research funds terminated using political, not scientific criteria

A federal judge in Boston ordered the National Institutes of Health to restore billions of federal research dollars terminated in recent months by the Trump administration.

Judge William Young said the rationale for terminating grants that included studies of racial minorities and gender identity amounted to discrimination. He told the NIH to resume funding for those grants and to stop using the criteria that lead to the cancellations.

The order, issued from the bench Monday, was in response to two lawsuits. One filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Public Health Association, the International Union, United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America and several other plaintiffs. The second challenge came from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 15 other state attorneys general. The suits claimed the NIH had acted without scientific justification and did not have the authority to end funding directed by Congress.

Young, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, stressed the need to resume scientific research as soon as possible.

“There was a clear understanding of the importance that science and scientific research has in protecting and promoting the health of people in this country,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, said attorneys are exploring a move to stay the order as well an appeal.

"HHS stands by its decision to end funding for research that prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes for the American people," wrote Andrew Nixon, the department's director of communications, in an email. "HHS is committed to ensuring that taxpayer dollars support programs rooted in evidence-based practices and gold standard science — not driven by divisive DEI mandates or gender ideology."

Brittany Charlton, who founded the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, lost roughly $6 million in NIH funding in March and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

“To be sitting in the courtroom and have Judge Young ask, ‘Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?’ ” said Charlton, “It was heartbreaking but also validating.”

The Trump administration has said research like Charlton’s was terminated because it did not align with current federal priorities.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement the government's priorities have already caused damage.

President Trump "halted lifesaving research into cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s — diseases that we are all impacted by. We can’t get that time back," Healey said. "He forced our research universities to lay off staff and rescind PhD offers. And he handed China and other foreign countries the opportunity to recruit away our researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs."

This decision is not expected to apply to all funding cut by the NIH in recent months, and it's unclear whether the ruling might be used to support other lawsuits challenging terminations.

Last month, two doctors from Harvard won a preliminary injunction that means their studies, which mention LGBTQ patients, would be restored to a patient safety website. And a judge has blocked a proposed cap on the portion of research grants that can be used for administrative costs. The NIH has appealed that ruling.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect comments from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey in response to the judge's decision.