Judge Rules DOGE’s Humanities Grant Cuts Unconstitutional, Including Jewish Projects
A federal judge ruled that DOGE’s cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants was unconstitutional, including cuts that affected several Jewish and Holocaust-related projects.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said the mass termination of NEH grants violated the First Amendment, the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, and exceeded DOGE’s statutory authority. The order declared the terminations unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.
The ruling covered more than 1,400 grants and more than $100 million in congressionally approved humanities funding, according to AP and Reuters.
The Forward/JTA reported that Jewish-related projects were among those affected. The ruling cited grants tied to Jewish women during the Holocaust, Jewish slave labor, ancient writings attributed to Moses but excluded from the canonical Hebrew Bible, and an anthology of short fiction by Jewish writers from the former Soviet Union.
McMahon also criticized DOGE’s use of ChatGPT in the grant review process. The court said DOGE did not define “DEI” for ChatGPT and did not ask the tool to evaluate the purpose, methodology, or scholarly substance of the projects. The judge wrote that DOGE adopted AI-generated rationales without meaningful review.
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The legal consequence is direct. The government is permanently barred from enforcing or giving effect to the mass termination notices and must notify affected grant recipients of the ruling.
The White House disputed the ruling, telling the Washington Post that the decision was “egregiously wrong” and that the administration expected to be vindicated as litigation continues.
The case now becomes part of a broader legal fight over how far DOGE and the Trump administration can go in reshaping federal spending after Congress has already approved funds.
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