Deeply divided Supreme Court lets NIH grant terminations continue

Shortly after the Trump Administration took office, it started cancelling grants for things it had disagreements with: funding for pandemic preparation, efforts to diversify the scientific workforce, those that targeted minority health issues, and more. These terminations were challenged in court, and a consolidated case was heard in the District of Massachusetts, pitting the government against individual researchers, organizations that represent them, and states that host research institutions.

The result was a decisive win for the scientists. As the ruling explained, the government's termination efforts violated a statute against "arbitrary and capricious" policies, resulting in a stay that both blocked implementation of the policy and restored the flow of research funding.

That stay remained intact through appeals that brought it to the Supreme Court, which released its ruling on Thursday. As the result is a complicated split among the Justices, the stay against the policy itself remains intact. However ...