When Donald Trump started his second term in office, he began with a flurry of executive orders that targeted DEI initiatives. Among them were more than 1,700 grants by the National Institute of Health that touched on race and gender. After a long, drawn-out battle at the Supreme Court, Trump was allowed to maintain his halt in grant funding, but the court also signaled that this ruling was not something Trump should become accustomed to.
CNN has described the Supreme Court as “heavily fractured.” Despite the heavy conservative bent of the judges on the bench, the Trump administration only secured a favorable ruling by a slim 5-4 margin, which was surprising considering Trump has been receiving major rulings in his favor lately. When Trump signed the executive order cutting almost $800 million in funding, his administration claimed that the contracts promote “immoral race-based preferences” and “sex-based preferences” under the guise of DEI efforts.
