A federal judge in New York has blocked the mass termination of humanities grants awarded to members of the Authors Guild, ruling that the cancellations may have violated constitutional protections under the First Amendment.
Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction late Friday, halting the government’s attempt to rescind National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants. The judge also ordered that all associated funds remain untouched until a trial determines the legality of the cancellations.
According to McMahon, the grant terminations were not neutral policy decisions but actions driven by ideological motives.
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“Defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients’ perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas,” she wrote. “This is most evident by the citation in the Termination Notices to executive orders purporting to combat ‘Radical Indoctrination’ and ‘Radical … DEI Programs,’ and to further ‘Biological Truth.’”
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Among the canceled awards was a grant to a scholar researching the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and 1980s. A government spreadsheet titled “Copy of NEH Active Grants” flagged the project due to its perceived association with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, McMahon noted in her ruling.
Other history-related proposals were also identified and terminated because of DEI-related content, she added.
While McMahon acknowledged that federal agencies may redirect priorities, particularly with the U.S. semiquincentennial approaching, she warned that such shifts must respect constitutional boundaries.
“Far be it from this Court to deny the right of the Administration to focus NEH priorities on American history and exceptionalism as the year of our semiquincentennial approaches,” she wrote. “Such refocusing is ordinarily a matter of agency discretion. But agency discretion does not include discretion to violate the First Amendment. Nor does [it] give the Government the right to edit history.”
The judge also emphasized that some grants appeared to be revoked merely because they were approved during the Biden administration.
The Authors Guild, whose members were directly affected, filed a class action lawsuit in May against the NEH and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), accusing the agencies of voiding funds already authorized by Congress. According to the lawsuit, the abrupt shutdown brought the humanities councils’ operations “to a screeching halt.”
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Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger praised the ruling as a crucial line of defense against political overreach.
“The decision is a heartening reminder that courts remain a bastion against government overreach and will step in to protect fundamental rights and liberties when they are blatantly threatened,” she said Saturday.
This legal challenge is one of several brought by coalitions of academic, historical, and cultural organizations seeking to prevent funding cuts and the dismantling of public institutions tied to research and the arts.
While McMahon granted injunctive relief to the Authors Guild, she rejected a similar motion from the American Council of Learned Societies, which had partnered with groups like the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association in its suit. Several of their claims were also dismissed.
However, McMahon stressed that her ruling was intentionally narrow.
The injunction, she explained, is “narrowly tailored to maintain the status quo until we can decide whether Plaintiffs are entitled to ultimate relief. It does nothing more.”
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