WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, August 21, 2025, granted a request by the Trump administration to lift a lower court order that had blocked the cancellation of approximately $783 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The 5-4 decision, while temporary, allows the administration to proceed with terminating the grants as part of its effort to roll back federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, according to reports from CBS News and The Associated Press.
The ruling, which split along ideological lines with Justice Amy Coney Barrett providing the key fifth vote, overturns a prior decision by U.S. District Judge William Young. In June, Judge Young had ruled that the grant terminations were “unlawful” and “arbitrary and capricious,” and he had ordered the NIH to restore the funding. The Supreme Court’s brief, unsigned order stated that the district court likely lacked the jurisdiction to issue such a directive, arguing that challenges to grant terminations should be heard in the Court of Federal Claims, as reported by SCOTUSblog.
The grants in question are part of a larger, estimated $12 billion worth of NIH research funding that the Trump administration has sought to cut since taking office. The affected projects are tied to topics that include racial minorities, LGBTQ+ issues, and other DEI-related research. The administration has argued that these programs do not align with its policy objectives. Justice Neil Gorsuch, in a brief opinion, criticized the lower courts for their interventions, stating that “all these interventions should have been unnecessary,” as quoted by The Times of India.
The decision is a significant victory for the administration but is not a final ruling on the legality of the funding cuts. The lawsuit, brought by a coalition of 16 states and several research groups, will continue to play out in the lower courts. The plaintiffs have argued that the cuts will have “incalculable losses in public health and human life,” as reported by Fox News, by halting research projects midway through and disrupting the work of scientists.
While the Supreme Court allowed the existing grant terminations to proceed, it left in place another part of the lower court’s ruling that blocked the administration from applying new anti-DEI guidance to future funding decisions. This partial denial of the administration’s request was also a 5-4 split, with Justice Barrett joining Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices in that vote, according to SCOTUSblog.
