Researchers say NIH grant screening process violates First Amendment

More than a dozen researchers accused the National Institutes of Health of unconstitutionally blocking grants for projects that don't reflect the Trump administration’s views on topics including gender identity and climate change in a class action lawsuit.

The 17 researchers, whose legal counsel includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Protect Democracy and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sued the agency along with Director Jay Bhattacharya, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and several federal institutions.

The researchers "recognize that the government may set funding priorities and decide among competing proposals consistent with the First Amendment,” said the complaint, which was filed in federal court in California on Sept. 16. “What the First Amendment does not allow is the government’s use of its funding power to target or silence the expression of disfavored viewpoints within the biomedical research community.”

Both the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The complaint alleged that in early 2025, the NIH and the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency “used keyword searches for terms related to ‘DEI’ and ‘gender identity’ to abruptly terminate thousands of projects perceived or expected to communicate viewpoints disfavored” by…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/