Shocker: SDNY Judge (Clinton appointee, Harvard Law) rules that grants distributed on the basis of race and gender can't be cancelled on the basis of race and gender

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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency “blatantly used” race, gender and other protected characteristics to execute the largest mass termination of federal grants in the history of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. 

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon declared the terminations unlawful, concluded that the DOGE staffers lacked the authority to make those decisions, and blocked the Trump administration from carrying out the grant terminations. 

“There can be no serious dispute that the review process implemented by DOGE did not conform to, or even resemble, NEH’s ordinary grant-review process,” Judge McMahon wrote. 

Citing the current resurgence of antisemitism, Judge McMahon called out the decision to cut funding for grants related to the Holocaust because it focused on women who survived Nazi persecution. 

“At a time when the specter of antisemitism has reemerged from the shadows, for our Government to deem a project about Jewish women disfavored because it centered on Jewish cultures and female voices is deeply troubling,” she said. 

The nonprofits that sued over DOGE’s cuts to their funding are celebrating the ruling, saying the court affirmed the importance of humanities research in a democratic society. 

“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 — to seek the truth, know ourselves, and build a better future on that knowledge,” said the American Council of Learned Societies President Joy Connolly in a statement.

When President Donald Trump returned to office last January, he empowered Musk to slash federal spending as a lead adviser in the newly created DOGE. Within days, all agencies were directed to put DEI staff on leave and related programs were shuttered.

Here’s the nub of it: Job protection, for federal agencies and, even more, the thousands NGO organizations and employees that have been living on taxpayers’ money for decades.

In lengthy depositions released in March, two DOGE employees -- Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh -- defended the effort to cut "useless agencies" as part of DOGE's attempt to reduce the federal deficit.

"You don't regret that people might have lost important income ... to support their lives?" an attorney asked Cavanaugh about the grant cancellations.

"No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero," Cavanaugh said.