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A federal judge declared that the mass terminations of grants executed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of Elon Musk are illegal, in a ruling that prevents the Trump administration from carrying out more than 1,400 cancellations of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants.
The judge of the Southern District of New York, Colleen McMahon, in a 143-page ruling, concluding that the employees of DOGE lacked the legal authority to make such decisions and that the process used bore no resemblance to the ordinary grant review process of the institution.
"There can be no serious dispute that the review process implemented by the DOGE did not conform, nor even resemble, the ordinary scholarship review process of the NEH," wrote Judge McMahon.
The cancellations affected more than 100 million dollars in funds approved by Congress, marking the largest mass termination of previously awarded grants in NEH history.
The judge determined that the DOGE "blatantly used" protected characteristics such as race, gender, and religion as criteria for canceling funding.
"Addressing the history of civil rights for African Americans, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of Native American children, or even the mere mention of a woman as an indicator of lack of merit or waste is not legal," he noted.
The ruling was particularly critical of the cancellation of scholarships related to the Holocaust focused on women survivors of Nazism.
"In a moment when the specter of antisemitism has risen from the shadows, for our Government to view negatively a project concerning Jewish women for focusing on Jewish cultures and female voices is deeply disturbing," wrote the judge.
The case was initiated by three organizations: the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American Historical Association (AHA), and the Modern Language Association (MLA).
Key to the ruling were the testimonies of two DOGE employees, Justin Fox and Nathan Cavanaugh, who admitted to using ChatGPT and keywords related to diversity, equity, and inclusion —such as "DEI, DEIA, Equity, Inclusion, BIPAC, LGBTQ"— to identify which scholarships to cancel, without reviewing the applications or the underlying materials.
Neither of them had prior experience in government before joining the DOGE, and both lacked training in the humanities.
In his testimony, Cavanaugh admitted without remorse that the cuts did not achieve the stated objective.
"Do you not regret that people may have lost significant income to sustain their lives?" a lawyer asked him.
“No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from two trillion to nearly zero,” Cavanaugh responded. When asked if they actually achieved that reduction, he admitted, “No, we didn’t.”
This ruling is not the first to halt the DOGE in court. In May 2025, another federal judge declared the takeover of the United States Institute of Peace illegal by the agency, in a pattern of unfavorable decisions that has accumulated multiple legal blocks due to a lack of legal authority and the use of discriminatory criteria.
Joy Connolly, president of the ACLS, celebrated the ruling with a statement that summarizes the stance of the plaintiff organizations: "The humanities are not a luxury. They are how a democracy understands itself. Today's decision is a step toward honoring the will of Congress and our mission as a nation."
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