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The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants<\/a> to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued<\/a> DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding.<\/p>\n Government lawyers had argued that the cuts of more than 1,400 grants of congressionally approved funds were legal moves to implement President Donald Trump’s directives, eliminate grants associated with diversion, equity and inclusion<\/a> and reduce discretionary spending under the administration’s priorities.<\/p>\n The White House and Department of Justice, which defended against the lawsuit, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear if an appeal was planned.<\/p>\n McMahon said the government violated the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection right, and DOGE did not have the lawful authority to cancel the grants. She wrote, for example, that it was \u201ca textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination\u201d when officials canceled the grants based on DEI.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public interest favors permanent relief,\u201d McMahon wrote in her ruling. \u201cThe public has a strong interest in ensuring that federal officials act within the bounds set by Congress and the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Several groups that sued the government, including the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association and Modern Language Association, hailed the decision in a joint statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis ruling in an important achievement in our effort to restore the NEH\u2019s ability to fulfill the vital mission with which Congress charged it: helping to create and sustain \u2018a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry\u2019 through the humanities,\u201d said Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.<\/p>\n Yinka Ezekiel Onayemi, an attorney for the Authors Guild, called the grant cancellations \u201ca direct assault on constitutional free speech and equal protection.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the Court\u2019s decision, which vindicates our clients: the brilliant academics, writers, and institutions doing work that is deeply important to our democracy,\u201d Onayemi said in a statement. \u201cIt also reaffirms that Congress\u2019s 60 year old commitment to the humanities cannot be dismantled by an overreaching executive.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge scrutinized how government officials classified grant projects as DEI and used ChatGPT to target them for funding cuts. In one case, she said officials, using the AI platform, labeled as DEI an anthology titled \u201cIn the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union.\u201d She also listed numerous other examples.<\/p>\n McMahon also rejected the government’s argument that there was no constitutional problem because any viewpoint classification was ChatGPT’s doing, and not the government’s.<\/p>\n \u201cChatGPT was the Government\u2019s chosen instrument for purposes of this project, and DOGE\u2019s use of AI to identify DEI-related material neither excuses presumptively unconstitutional conduct nor gives the Government carte blanche to engage in it,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n The grant cancellations were announced in April 2025, three months after Trump issued an executive order<\/a> titled \u201cEnding Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.\u201d In February 2025, Trump issued another executive order implementing DOGE’s \u201ccost efficiency initiative.\u201d <\/p>\n Michael McDonald, then the acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sent letters to grant recipients informing them that their grants were canceled. <\/p>\n In a letter to one organization on April 1, 2025, he wrote, \u201cThe NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the canceled grants were awarded during the Biden administration, and only about 40 grants awarded by that administration were spared from the cuts, the judge wrote.<\/p>\n McMahon wrote that while a new administration may pursue lawful funding priorities, \u201cit has no license to suppress disfavored ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n