Judge Halts Trump Administration's Termination of NEH Grants, Rules DOGE Review Process Violated Agency Standards

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled on May 7, 2026 that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency blatantly used race, gender and other protected characteristics to execute the largest mass termination of federal grants in the history of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Judge Colleen McMahon declared the DOGE grant terminations unlawful.

She concluded that DOGE staffers lacked the authority to make the grant termination decisions and blocked the Trump administration from carrying out the NEH grant terminations. "There can be no serious dispute that the review process implemented by DOGE did not conform to, or even resemble, NEH’s ordinary grant-review process," Judge McMahon wrote.

She found that DOGE blatantly used protected characteristics as criteria for grant termination.

"Treating Black civil-rights history, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the oft-forgotten Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of the children of Native tribes, or the mere mention of a woman as a marker of lack of merit or wastefulness is not lawful," Judge McMahon stated.

"At a time when the specter of antisemitism has reemerged from the shadows, for our Government to deem a project about Jewish women disfavored because it centered on Jewish cultures and female voices is deeply troubling," she added. The ruling came in a case brought by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association.

@ABC reported that two former DOGE staffers described using ChatGPT and DEI keywords to carry out massive cuts in depositions previously reported by ABC News. President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh are two DOGE employees who gave lengthy depositions released in March. Justin Fox participated in a deposition on Jan. 28, 2026. Nathan Cavanaugh participated in a deposition on Jan.

23, 2026. With backgrounds in tech and finance, neither man worked in government prior to joining DOGE in 2025. Nathan Cavanaugh said they originally determined which grants could be cut based on whether they included certain words like DEI, DEIA, Equity, Inclusion, BIPAC, or LGBTQ, though the final decision about which grants to cut was up to the head of individual agencies.

"You don't regret that people might have lost important income to support their lives" due to the grant cancellations, an attorney asked Cavanaugh. "No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero," Nathan Cavanaugh said.

" the attorney asked.