The American Public Health Association and United Auto Workers filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Massachusetts federal court challenging the Trump administration's cancellation of hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants [1,2,3].

The lawsuit names the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the NIH, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants. The NIH has declined to comment on the pending litigation [1].

The cancellations stem from President Trump's executive order on 'Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending,' which directed agencies to terminate programs deemed not promoting 'the interests of the American people.' The order particularly impacts research related to diversity programs and gender studies [1,2].

Affected projects include research on:

Cancer, strokes, and cardiac healthAlzheimer's and depressionCOVID-19 outbreak predictionHIV preventionMinority health disparities

The plaintiffs argue the cancellations violate HHS regulations, which only permit grant termination for non-compliance or with grantee consent. They also contend the actions contradict the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000 [1,3].

This lawsuit joins over 100 other legal challenges to Trump administration executive actions in recent months. Earlier this week, 23 states and Washington, DC filed a separate suit regarding a $12 billion public health funding rollback [2].

The NIH, as the world's largest biomedical research funder, typically awards grants through a merit-based review process by scientific experts. Grant cancellations were historically rare before these recent actions [1,2,3].