Lawsuits

Scientists Sue NIH Over Grant Keyword Screening

Was the blacklist of 235 words unconstitutional or simply an agency setting legitimate priorities?

Published 16 hours ago

Scientists Sue NIH Over Grant Keyword Screening

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Above: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) logo on a smartphone screen in Athens, Greece, on May 22. Image credit: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Spin

Left narrative

Blocking biomedical research over a blacklist of 235 words like "gender," "equity" and "climate change" is censorship. Congress required that NIH grants be awarded on scientific merit and the First Amendment bars penalizing scientists based on administration ideology.

Science American Civil Liberties Union

Right narrative

There is no First Amendment right to a taxpayer-funded NIH grant. Agencies get to set research priorities and shift funding toward topics deemed to have primacy, and losing out on a subsidy does not amount to censorship. This suit is a frivolous waste.

Richard H. Ebright on X

Paul D. Thacker on X

Metaculus Prediction

There is a 50% chance that the National Institutes of Health’s actual obligations will be at least $49.7 billion in the fiscal year 2028, according to the Metaculus prediction community.