A US federal judge has criticized some of the terminations carried out under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), saying the process was illegal, poorly designed and “deeply troubling”.U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled Thursday that grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) cannot be collectively revoked, blocking the Trump administration from implementing them and criticizing how they are being implemented.“There can be no serious dispute that the review process implemented by DOGE was not consistent with, or even similar to, NEH’s normal grant review process,” Judge McMahon wrote.The court found that DOGE employees lacked proper authority to make decisions and said the terminations were carried out in a manner that ignored established procedures. In her ruling, the judge concluded that the protected characteristics had been used incorrectly during the review process.“Judge McMahon declared the terminations unlawful, concluded that DOGE employees lacked the authority to make those decisions, and barred the Trump Administration from implementing the grant terminations.”
She added that the method used by the Ministry of Gender Equality was discriminatory in practice.“Treating the history of black civil rights, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the often forgotten Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of indigenous tribal children, or the mere mention of a woman as a sign of lack of merit or extravagance is illegal,” she said.The judge also focused on specific cuts to projects linked to Holocaust studies, saying the underlying reasons were troubling.“At a time when the specter of anti-Semitism has re-emerged from the shadows, for our government to view a project about Jewish women as objectionable because it focuses on Jewish cultures and women’s voices is deeply troubling,” she said.The ruling comes after several nonprofits challenged the rescission of the grants in court, arguing that the cuts undermined humanities research and ignored Congress’ intent.
They welcomed the decision and described it as an important defense of cultural and academic work.The case centered on actions taken after Donald Trump returned to the White House and enabled Musk to help advance federal cost-cutting efforts through the newly created DOGE, along with Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s primary. Agencies were instructed early on to suspend diversity-related programs and staffing.Court documents and depositions released earlier this year showed how two DOGE employees, Justin Fox and Nate Kavanaugh, helped identify rescission grants using keyword filters.
These included terms such as “DEI,” “Equity,” “Inclusion,” and “LGBTQ.”Kavanaugh acknowledged in his testimony that this approach was straightforward, although he advocated the broader goal of cutting spending.“Aren’t you sorry that people may have lost important income…to support their lives?” Attorney Kavanaugh asked.“No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to nearly zero,” Kavanaugh said.“Did you reduce the federal deficit?” The lawyer asked.“No, we didn’t,” Kavanaugh said.Neither Fox nor Kavanaugh worked in government before joining DOGE.
