A federal judge rejected a bid Wednesday by physics educators and others to freeze the National Science Foundation’s mass cancellation of grants involving topics that the Trump administration disfavors such as diversity and climate change.
In an important but not definitive early-round legal defeat for the American Association of Physics Teachers and its allies, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb declined to issue a preliminary injunction that would have temporarily stopped the NSF from proceeding with the grant cancellations.
Cobb’s ruling means at least part of the lawsuit can proceed through the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia without having an immediate impact on the approximately 1,600 canceled NSF grants worth more than $1 billion.
“A federal award may be terminated in part or its entirety for many broad reasons, including ‘if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities,'” Cobb wrote, quoting from federal regulations.
