Updates July 3, 2025
No rest for the busy work of cancellation
Separate post on reconciliation bill coming.
Federal
Executive
Research
Although the grant terminations (above) have been deemed illegal, and NIH announced it will halt future terminations, NIH is still directing its staff to screen new grants under the same criteria (no DEI, no LGBTQ health, no environmental justice).
NIH rescinded its earlier notice that awardees may not conduct DEI activities or boycott Israeli companies.
Higher Education
University of Pennsylvania settled with the Dept. of Education, in which the Office of Civil Rights accused Penn of Title IX violation by allowing a trans-woman athlete to compete on its swim team. Penn will strip alumna Lia Thomas of her swimming records, issue a formal apology to other team members. The administration had frozen $175M in federal funding to Penn researchers as a move to extort concessions.
University of Virginia president James Ryan will step down, following a Dept. of Justice investigation into claims that UVa had not terminated its DEI efforts.
The Dept. of Justice announced a new investigation into the University of California system, claiming initiatives to advance faculty diversity constitute racial and sex-based discrimination.
The Dept. of Justice has sued multiple states, most recently Minnesota, over allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition to attend public universities (others include Kentucky and Texas).
Students for Fair Admissions is suing the Depart of Education Hispanic Serving Institution program for discrimination. The Minority Serving Institutions programs support services for universities enrolling designated populations, including HBCUs, HSI, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving (AANAPISI), with also substantial low-income student populations.
Immigration
The State Department will re-start interviews for international student visas but with more in-depth scrutiny of applicants’ “online presence,” further underscoring the restrictions on international students’ rights.
ICE raids: You may have heard about some things going down in LA. Asians have been fastest growing undocumented population in the U.S. in the last 30 years.
Denaturalization: In echoes of the Bhagavat Singh Thind case, the Dept of Justice will pursue denaturalization of immigrants with U.S. citizenship.
Judiciary
SCOTUS
Ruled that parents can have their children opt out of class when course material conflicts with their religious beliefs, in a case in which a group of parents sued against a school board decision to introduce LGBTQ+ inclusive books.
Ruled that Medicaid can exclude Planned Parenthood or any other provider that offers abortion care, even if Medicaid is not funding those services.
Ruled that lower courts may not impose nationwide injunctions, thus leaving challenges to birthright citizenship open— and paving the way to overturn the precedent established in the Wong Kim Ark case. The ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit against the executive order.
Federal District Courts
William Young of the US District Court for Massachusetts ruled that NIH grant terminations targeting LGBT and minority health research were illegal- but currently only applied to the 16 states engaged in the suit.
Myong Joun of the US District Court for Massachusetts ruled that the Dept. of Education must re-instate laid off staff from the Office of Civil Rights (over half of the staff were RIF’ed and all seven regional offices were closed).
Melissa DuBose of the US District Court for Rhode Island has ruled that the Dept. of Health and Human Services layoffs were likely unlawful and ordered a halt those announced in March and any future RIFs.
Counter-Actions
Asian Americans Advancing Justice filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for the termination of the Anti-Hate Crimes grant program (part of the broader elimination of violence prevention grants in April).
