In blow to RFK Jr.'s anti-diversity crusade, judge voids NIH directives

A Ronald Reagan-appointed judge called the NIH directives the worst racial bias he's seen in 40 years, asking: "Have we no shame?"

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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Under the oversight of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late civil rights icon, the National Institutes of Health issued directives amounting to the worst case of government racial discrimination that a federal judge said he has seen in his four-decade career.

“I've sat on this bench now for 40 years,” U.S. District Judge William Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said during impassioned remarks from the bench on Monday. “I've never seen government racial discrimination like this.”

Judge Young made those remarks shortly after voiding the National Institutes of Health’s directives purging grants meant to address LGBTQ and racial inequalities in healthcare as “arbitrary and capricious.”

“They are of no force and effect,” Young declared, referring to those directives. “They are void, and illegal.”

The judge issued that ruling under the Administrative Procedure Act, a law designed to prevent the government from making policy changes based on a whim.

“These edicts are nothing more than conclusory, unsupported by facts,” Young remarked.

In April, a coalition of public health advocacy groups, unions, and experts sued the National Institutes of Health and Human Services in federal court over what they described as an “ ongoing ideological purge of hundreds of critical research projects because they assertedly have some connection to ‘gender identity’ or ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ (‘DEI’) or other vague, now-forbidden language.”

The number of terminated grants has ballooned since then to more than 2,200, according to analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Judge Young could not help but notice that the terminations had the effect of targeting racial and gender minorities, even though the topic of discrimination was not yet formally before him as a legal matter.

“​​This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBTQ community,” Young said. “That's what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out — and I do so.”

Now that the Supreme Court has ended affirmative action, the judge acknowledged that the “extirpation” of that policy would be a legitimate objective.

“It is not a license to discriminate on the basis of color,” Young said. “It simply is not. That's what the Civil War amendments are about.”

Calling such discrimination “palpably clear,” the judge added: “That's appalling.”

Noting that the court record didn’t appear to show internal opposition to those policies, Judge Young asked indignantly: “Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?”