Overview

• The 5–4 ruling grants the Justice Department’s request and lifts an injunction that had stopped the National Institutes of Health from canceling grants.
• Justices pointed to a jurisdictional issue, indicating certain claims should be brought in the Court of Federal Claims rather than in district court.
• The administration has identified about $783 million across more than 1,700 NIH programs for reduction, affecting research on rural heart disease, climate-related health impacts, and links between traffic pollution and dementia.
• Researchers, a union, and 16 states remain plaintiffs in the underlying case, arguing the cuts will cause severe harm to public health and waste ongoing research.
• A district judge had previously called the abrupt cancellations arbitrary and discriminatory and an appeals court affirmed before the Supreme Court’s order allowed the cuts to move forward; Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.