Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, appointed by former President Donald Trump, expressed strong frustration with lower courts for defying Supreme Court rulings. His remarks came after the Court delivered a narrow 5-4 decision allowing the Trump administration to cut federal NIH research grants tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, gender identity studies, and COVID-19-related projects. The NIH will no longer issue grants based on DEI or race-based criteria.<\/p>\n
Gorsuch, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, criticized what he called a troubling pattern of lower courts ignoring Supreme Court precedents. The immediate case involved a federal judge in Massachusetts who ordered NIH payments to continue, despite a prior Supreme Court ruling allowing similar cuts. Sixteen Democratic attorneys general and several health organizations had filed lawsuits, claiming the cuts were discriminatory.<\/p>\n
Justice Amy Coney Barrett cast the deciding vote, aligning with the Court\u2019s conservatives to halt the grants but also joining Chief Justice Roberts and the liberal justices to preserve a lower court ruling that struck down NIH policy guidance on DEI. Gorsuch warned that the Massachusetts ruling was part of a broader issue of judicial defiance, citing two other recent instances where lower courts had overstepped Supreme Court authority.<\/p>\n
In one of those cases, even liberal Justice Elena Kagan joined the majority to block a district court\u2019s resistance to Supreme Court orders. Another involved the Court upholding Trump\u2019s power to fire members of administrative agencies, which a lower court had attempted to challenge.<\/p>\n
Trump, since returning to office in 2025, has moved aggressively to dismantle Biden-era DEI initiatives, calling them discriminatory. The Supreme Court has supported several of his actions, including cutting DEI-linked teacher training grants.<\/p>\n
Barrett added in a concurring opinion that the case should have been filed in a different court. The decision overturned a Reagan-appointed judge who had sharply condemned the cuts as discriminatory against LGBTQ communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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