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Trump Wins Again. US Supreme Court & Immigration
Aug 21, 2025
Trump Wins Again. US Supreme Court & Immigration
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0:00
The US Supreme Court let President
0:02
Donald Trump's administration on
0:04
Thursday proceed with sweeping cuts to
0:07
National Institutes of Health grants for
0:10
research related to racial minorities or
0:13
LGBT people, part of his crackdown on
0:16
diversity, equity, and inclusion
0:18
initiatives and transgender identity.
0:22
The justices granted the Justice
0:24
Department's request to lift
0:26
Boston-based US District Judge William
0:28
Young's decision in June that the grant
0:30
terminations violated federal law, while
0:33
a legal challenge brought by researchers
0:36
and 16 US states plays out in a lower
0:40
court. The NIH is the world's largest
0:43
funer of biomedical research. The cuts
0:46
are part of Trump's wide-ranging actions
0:49
to reshape the US government/f federal
0:52
spending and end government support for
0:55
programs aimed at promoting diversity or
0:58
gender ideology that the administration
1:01
opposes.
1:03
The administration said Young's ruling
1:05
required the NIH to continue paying 783
1:09
million in grants that run counter to
1:12
its priorities. The administration
1:14
repeatedly has sought the Supreme
1:16
Court's intervention to allow
1:18
implementation of Trump policies impeded
1:21
by lower courts. The Supreme Court,
1:24
which has a 6 to3 conservative majority,
1:27
has sided with the administration in
1:29
almost every case that it has been
1:30
called upon to review since Trump
1:32
returned to the presidency in January.
1:36
After Trump signed executive orders in
1:38
January targeting DEI and gender
1:41
ideology, NIH instructed staff to
1:44
terminate grant funding for low value
1:47
and off-m mission studies deemed related
1:49
to these concepts as well as CO 19 and
1:53
ways to curb vaccine hesitancy.
1:57
Young's ruling came in two lawsuits
1:59
challenging the cuts. One was filed by
2:02
the American Public Health Association,
2:05
individual researchers and other
2:07
plaintiffs who called the cuts an
2:09
ongoing ideological purge, targeting
2:12
projects based on vague, now forbidden
2:15
language. The other was filed by the
2:18
states, most of them democratic le. The
2:21
plaintiffs said the terminated grants
2:23
included projects on breast cancer,
2:25
Alzheimer's disease, HIV prevention,
2:29
suicide, depression, and other
2:31
conditions that often disproportionately
2:33
burden minority communities, as well as
2:36
grants mandated by Congress to train and
2:39
support a diverse group of scientists in
2:42
biomedical research. Young, an appointee
2:45
of Republican former President Ronald
2:47
Reagan, invalidated the grant
2:49
terminations in June. In a written
2:51
ruling, the judge said they were
2:54
breathtakingly arbitrary and capricious,
2:57
violating a federal law governing the
2:59
actions of agencies. During a June
3:02
hearing in the case, Young rebuked the
3:05
administration for what he called a
3:07
darker aspect to the case that the cuts
3:10
represent racial discrimination and
3:13
discrimination against America's LGBTQ
3:17
community.
3:19
I've never seen a record where racial
3:21
discrimination was so palpable, the
3:23
judge said. Young also said the cuts
3:26
were designed to stop research that
3:28
bears on the health of the LGBT
3:30
community. That's appalling, the judge
3:33
said. The Boston-based First US Circuit
3:36
Court of Appeals on July 18th denied the
3:39
administration's request to put Young's
3:42
decision on hold. The administration has
3:45
argued that the litigation should have
3:47
been brought in a different judicial
3:49
body, the Washington-based Court of
3:52
Federal Claims, which specializes in
3:55
money damages claims against the US
3:57
government. That reasoning was also the
4:00
basis for the Supreme Court's decision
4:02
in April that let Trump's administration
4:05
proceed with millions of dollars of cuts
4:08
to teacher training grants, also
4:10
targeted under the DEI crackdown.
#Government
#Legal
#Sensitive Subjects