A coalition of health researchers, unions and other stakeholders filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the abrupt cancellation of billions of dollars in research grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as unconstitutional. 

The coalition, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argues the administration’s “ongoing ideological purge of hundreds of critical research projects” violates federal law and asks a court to stop the cancellations and order the funding restored. 

The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts district court, said there was no “scientifically-valid explanation or cause” for NIH to cancel the research projects. 

NIH attempted to justify the first wave of its sweeping grant cancellations by citing connections to “gender identity” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), without defining these terms or explaining how they apply to the terminated research. 

The agency “has not highlighted any genuine concerns with the rigor of projects or any underlying data; in a matter of weeks it has just declared them all ‘unscientific,’” the lawsuit stated. 

As a result, “scientific advancement will be delayed, treatments will go undiscovered, human health will be compromised, and lives will be lost,” the lawsuit said. 

The lawsuit was filed against the NIH and its director, Jay Bhattacharya, as well as the Department of Human and Health Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

“The NIH’s efforts to shut down research that so much as references LGBTQ people or racial minorities is a direct attack on public health. By censoring studies that include these populations, they are also undermining critical research on cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer’s diseases that affect us all,” Olga Akselrod, senior counsel at the ACLU Racial Justice Program, said in a statement. 

The lawsuit said more than $2.4 billion in grants have been cancelled already, and researchers fear more are coming. 

“Those with grants that have yet to be cancelled wonder if they are soon to receive another vague, boilerplate termination letter,” the lawsuit said.  

The grants were canceled after NIH staff were directed to eliminate research the administration deemed to be connected to topics including gender identity or DEI, but also any grants about vaccine hesitancy, COVID and studies involving entities located in South Africa and China. 

The NIH has terminated at least 678 research projects, including some that the agency “is statutorily required to research,” the lawsuit said. 

These include projects on breast cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, HIV prevention, suicide prevention, and many other topics.