Sixteen states with Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Friday, accusing the agency of deliberately delaying and disrupting medical research grant funding, including canceling grants that had already been awarded.
In an 82-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the attorneys general named Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya as defendants.
The suit claims that since President Donald Trump returned to office, NIH has slowed down the grant approval process for research proposals that were expected to move forward.
According to the lawsuit, the agency has also refused to continue funding multi-year grants that had previously been approved, citing political disagreements over topics such as race and gender.
The states involved in the lawsuit are Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
In their filing, the attorneys general described NIH as “the crown jewel” of American medical research, highlighting its role in driving major scientific breakthroughs and contributing to economic progress. They warned that this work is now under threat.
“By law, NIH provides much of its research support through grants to outside institutions,” the lawsuit states. “Since January, however, the current Administration has taken multiple steps to disrupt the NIH’s grant-making process.”
Starting last month, the NIH reportedly sent out “hundreds of letters” to research institutions notifying them that existing grants were being canceled.
The agency claimed these projects “no longer effectuate… agency priorities,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit links the cancellations to three executive orders President Trump signed on his first day back in office. Those orders targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and protections for transgender individuals.
Agency leaders reportedly followed those orders with internal directives to halt funding for related research.
The complaint says the NIH letters stated that grants were being terminated due to their connection to DEI, transgender issues, vaccine hesitancy, or other subjects the current administration opposes.
HHS has not publicly commented on the lawsuit as of Friday.
This case follows another legal challenge the department faces from a broader group of Democratic-led states.
That lawsuit challenges the cancellation of grants issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs claim the department improperly revoked extensions and clawed back $11 billion in funding, resulting in job losses and halted research efforts.
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily restored those grants while that case moves forward.
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