ACLU sues National Institutes of Health for ‘ideological purge’ of research projects
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday claiming that the National Health Institutes of Health had “a continuous ideological cleansing of critical research projects” that violate federal and unconstitutional law.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Massachusetts Provincial Court on behalf of four researchers and three unions with members who depend on financing the national health institutes, said that the Federal Science Agency “suddenly canceled” hundreds of research projects “without explanation or scientific financial issue.”
The lawsuit says NIH justified the justification of the abolition of “ideological purity directions” about research related to diversity, stock and integration (Dei), and the frequency of the vaccine and sexual identity, among other topics.
“The new arbitrary system is not recorded in any law or policy,” the lawsuit says, adding that the National Institutes of Health have “failed to develop any guidelines, definitions or interpretations” explaining “the standards of the agency’s prohibition against research with some contacts with Dei, sex, and other topics that fail in the ideological screen.”
The new lawsuit is listed by the national health institutes. Its director, Jay Bhatersia; The US Department of Human Services and Health; And its director, Robert F. Kennedy Junior, as a defendant. Both federal agencies said they will not comment on suspended litigation.
The Science Center in the Public Authority and Democratic Protection Project with the American Civil Liberties Union works on the lawsuit.
It is one of the many legal challenges facing the Trump administration now because it tries to reduce research financing, change how to customize it or reduce the academic focus on diversity, among other issues.
After several legal complaints, a In February, the Massachusetts State Judge arrested the national health institutes To reduce indirect cost financing, which would significantly reduce the amount of funding provided by the federal government to research agencies for things such as equipment, maintenance, facilities and support staff. Other lawsuits were stabbed Funding is freezing through the federal government and Administration prohibition on Dei programs.
“Our case deals in particular with the end of NIH’s legal grants and the process of reviewing the grant for applicants,” Olga Axelrod, the chief adviser to the racist justice program in the American Civil Liberties Union. “These comprehensive measures have disrupted hundreds of research grants, as they really have truly decisive research, and they increase the functions of the most promising scientists in the United States without any clear justifications.”
The lawsuit says that at least 678 research projects have been terminated by the National Institutes of Health, including breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and the prevention of HIV, among other topics.
The lawsuit says that canceled grants amounted to more than $ 2.4 billion. From this total, about $ 1.3 billion has already been spent. Another $ 1.1 billion is expected to be distributed to donors by the National Health Institutes before its abolition.
“NIH cancellation in the middle of the road effectively ignores a huge amount of money in investments and years of work allocated to answer some of the most urgent vital medical questions of our time.” “Not only can you run research and stop it like a faucet. “
Among the researchers, Ptmani Charlton, is a professor of the Harvard Medical College, who founded the Harvard Health Excellence Center at Harvard Public Health Faculty.
Charlton, whose research focuses on LGBTQ healthy inequality in cancer and reproductive health, among other topics, has had five grants by the National Institutes of Health since February, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that the other plaintiff, Katie Edwards, has been canceled six grants since February. Edwards, a professor at the University of Michigan University of Social Labor, focused on research on preventing sexual violence in minority societies, including between indigenous youth and LGBTQ+societies.
