A federal judge ruled on Thursday that cuts to hundreds of humanities grants ordered by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency were predicated on “blatant” discrimination and were unconstitutional. DOGE was initially headed by former Trump administration adviser Elon Musk.
U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Colleen McMahon said the termination of the federal grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. Moreover, McMahon said DOGE officials had no authority to order such grant cuts.
“The Mass Termination is DECLARED unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect,” wrote Judge McMahon, according to the official court documents. The termination of National Endowment for the Humanities grants challenged in this action was unlawful because it was undertaken in violation of the First Amendment, in violation of the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, and without statutory authority.”
“The Court further DECLARES that DOGE officials lacked statutory authority to identify, select, or direct the termination of NEH grants, and that the resulting terminations were ultra vires,” she added.
McMahon also wrote that ending the grants based on “perceived viewpoint” interpretations was a violation of “protected expression.” She scolded the DOGE-authorized cuts for using computer programs and artificial intelligence to determine what grants to cut, and that DOGE “blatantly used protected characteristics as criteria for grant termination,” reported ABC News.
“What mattered to DOGE was not whether a grant lacked scholarly merit, failed to comply with its terms, or fell outside NEH’s (National Endowment for the Humanities) statutory purposes,” wrote McMahon. “What mattered was that the grant concerned a ‘minority group.’”
“DOGE swept in race and ethnicity – including grants concerning Black, Asian, Latino, and Indigenous communities – as well as national origin and immigration status; religion and religious identity (including Jewish, Christian, and Muslim subjects); sex; and sexual orientation, as criteria for grant termination,” said McMahon.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order, “Establishing and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency,” on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term.
“This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” read the directive.
Trump also implemented efforts to remove what he deemed to be left-wing mass indoctrination in the form of race-based programs associated with DEI programs. DOGE was tasked with identifying such efforts in government spending and determining whether such programs should be eliminated. The grants were determined to be government spending initiatives that violated the Trump administration’s initiatives.
She reinforced that their decision to end those grants, while claiming it was to reduce wasteful government spending, was “not lawful.”
“Treating Black civil-rights history, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the oft-forgotten Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of the children of Native tribes, or the mere mention of a woman as a marker of lack of merit or wastefulness is not lawful,” wrote McMahon.
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Furthermore, McMahon declared that the government was “permanently enjoined” from enforcing the grant cuts. She ordered that the government was required to provide “written notice” of her decision to all affected by the grant terminations.
“The Government, along with its officers, agents, servants, employees, and all persons acting in concert with them, is permanently enjoined from enforcing, implementing, or giving any effect to the Mass Termination,” McMahon said. “This injunction applies to all termination notices issued as part of the Mass Termination.”
“The Government shall provide written notice of this Opinion and Order to all affected grant recipients whose awards were terminated as part of the mass termination,” she added.
