A Manhattan federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from eliminating more than $100 million in humanities funding, declaring the grant cancellations violated constitutional protections and exceeded the Department of Government Efficiency’s legal authority.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled Thursday in favor of The Authors Guild and other organizations whose grants were terminated, issuing a permanent injunction against the administration and condemning DOGE’s reliance on artificial intelligence to identify programs for defunding.
Federal attorneys had defended the elimination of over 1,400 congressionally-approved grants as lawful implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive orders, arguing the cuts targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives while reducing discretionary expenditures aligned with administration goals.
Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice, which represented the government in the litigation, responded to requests for comment Thursday night. Officials have not indicated whether they plan to appeal the decision.
In her ruling, McMahon determined the government breached First Amendment protections and Fifth Amendment equal protection guarantees, finding DOGE lacked proper authorization to terminate the funding. She characterized the DEI-based grant cancellations as “a textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.”
“The public interest favors permanent relief,” McMahon stated in her decision. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that federal officials act within the bounds set by Congress and the Constitution.”
Organizations that challenged the government’s actions, including the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association and Modern Language Association, celebrated the outcome in a collective statement.
“This ruling in an important achievement in our effort to restore the NEH’s ability to fulfill the vital mission with which Congress charged it: helping to create and sustain ‘a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry’ through the humanities,” stated Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.
Authors Guild attorney Yinka Ezekiel Onayemi characterized the funding terminations as “a direct assault on constitutional free speech and equal protection.”
“We’re pleased with the Court’s decision, which vindicates our clients: the brilliant academics, writers, and institutions doing work that is deeply important to our democracy,” Onayemi declared. “It also reaffirms that Congress’s 60 year old commitment to the humanities cannot be dismantled by an overreaching executive.”
The judge examined how administration officials categorized grant programs as DEI-related and employed ChatGPT to identify them for budget elimination. McMahon noted one instance where officials used the AI system to classify an anthology called “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union” as a diversity initiative, among numerous other examples.
McMahon dismissed the government’s contention that constitutional violations were avoided because ChatGPT, rather than human officials, made the viewpoint determinations.
“ChatGPT was the Government’s chosen instrument for purposes of this project, and DOGE’s use of AI to identify DEI-related material neither excuses presumptively unconstitutional conduct nor gives the Government carte blanche to engage in it,” she explained.
The funding cancellations were announced in April 2025, following Trump’s January executive order called “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” A February 2025 executive order implemented DOGE’s “cost efficiency initiative.”
Michael McDonald, serving as interim National Endowment for the Humanities chairman, notified grant recipients of their funding terminations through written correspondence.
In an April 1, 2025 letter to one recipient organization, he stated, “The 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’s agenda.”
Most terminated grants had been approved during the Biden presidency, with approximately 40 Biden-era grants surviving the elimination process, according to the judge’s findings.
McMahon acknowledged that incoming administrations may legitimately pursue different funding priorities, but emphasized “it has no license to suppress disfavored ideas.”
In an earlier temporary restraining order addressing First Amendment concerns, the judge determined that “defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients’ perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas.”
