A federal judge on 7 May ruled that the Trump administration’s cancellation of hundreds of humanities grants under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was unconstitutional and amounted to “blatant viewpoint discrimination”.
The ruling concerned more than 1,400 grants worth more than $100 million that were terminated in April 2025, affecting scholars, writers, research institutions and humanities organisations across the United States.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said the administration violated constitutional protections for free speech and equal treatment under the law.
“The Government engaged in blatant viewpoint discrimination,” McMahon wrote in the ruling.
The grants had been awarded through the National Endowment for the Humanities before being cancelled as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk under the Trump administration’s DOGE programme.
According to the judge, the terminations disproportionately targeted projects connected to minority communities, religion, immigration and gender issues.
“What mattered to DOGE was not whether a grant lacked scholarly merit,” McMahon wrote, adding that the administration focused instead on whether projects involved “minority groups”.
The ruling said the programme swept in grants related to Black, Asian, Latino and Indigenous communities, as well as religion, sexuality and immigration status.
McMahon also criticised the reported use of ChatGPT in generating justifications for some grant terminations.
“The government cannot escape liability for DOGE’s work by scapegoating ChatGPT,” the judge wrote.
The court further ruled that DOGE lacked the legal authority to terminate the grants.
The decision comes amid broader criticism from rights groups and academic institutions over President Donald Trump’s policies targeting universities, arts organisations, museums and diversity initiatives.
Trump has argued that many cultural and educational institutions promote liberal or “anti-American” values and has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding tied to diversity programmes, climate initiatives and pro-Palestinian activism.
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