NIH is targeting and terminating grants for research studies that it thinks will communicate disfavored viewpoints on diversity, gender identity, climate change, and more, violating First Amendment rights and threatening the future of public health.
Government AccountabilityAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
On Sep. 16, 2026, CSPI’s Litigation Department and its co-counsel at the ACLU, Protect Democracy, and Jacobson Lawyers Group sued the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the US DOGE Service, challenging NIH’s ideologically driven censorship and termination of biomedical research grants.
On April 2, 2025, CSPI’s Litigation Department and its co-counsel at the ACLU and Protect Democracy Project sued the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), challenging the new policy that led to the abrupt and unlawful cancellation of research grants and the halt of the application process for new grants.
In recent months, we’ve witnessed an assault on science and longstanding safeguards to protect the public’s health on a scale never seen in U.S. history.
