A federal judge smacked down the Trump administration's effort to drastically cut grants to the National Institutes of Health, delivering a scathing rebuke and calling out the government's clear case of racial and LGBTQ discrimination.
The Trump administration cut NIH grants as part of a sweeping effort to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending. The administration has targeted non-essential and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifying that officials aimed to “eliminate DEI funding and redirect resources toward real poverty reduction."
"We will fund cutting-edge research at the NIH while cutting risky or non-essential services," he said.
On Monday afternoon, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that Judge William Young, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, declared the cuts "illegal" and "void," and ordered many restored.
"I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out."
Young called it "palpably clear" that the directives and the specific terminated grants were "designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health – we’re talking about health here — the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That’s appalling."
Young said he'd "never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable."
"I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this ... I ask myself, how can this be?" he railed, according to Cheney.
Young said he has a duty to speak the truth in every case, and questioned if he hadn't had Constitutional protections to do so, would he have stood up "against all this?"
"Would I have said, 'you can’t do this?' You are bearing down on people of color because of their color. The constitution will not permit that," he said.
Young added: "Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?"
