Ninth Circuit Panel Says First Amendment Likely Bars Viewpoint-Based Grant Cancellations

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration's termination of academic grants based on recipients' perceived DEI or environmental justice viewpoints likely violates the First Amendment. The panel, consisting of Judges Richard Paez, Morgan Christen, and Roopali Desai, issued the decision in Thakur v.

Trump. The ruling addressed grants canceled because of the recipients' perceived expression of DEI, DEIA, or environmental justice viewpoints.

The court distinguished between two categories of government funding decisions. It noted that the government may create or end an entire subsidy program without constitutional violation, citing Rust v. Sullivan. However, once a program exists, the government cannot selectively terminate individual grants based on the recipients' viewpoints.

The panel cited Rosenberger v. Rector and NEA v. Finley to support this distinction.

The opinion states that the agencies terminated grants based only on the recipients' perceived expression of DEI, DEIA, or environmental justice viewpoints, regardless of the programs through which they were funded. The court held that such terminations are aimed at the suppression of viewpoints with which the government disagrees and therefore likely violate the First Amendment.

The panel rejected the government's argument that each individual grant constitutes its own separate program that can be terminated at will.