Today's Ninth Circuit decision in Thakur v. Trump (Judge Morgan B. Christen, joined by Judges Richard A. Paez and Roopali H. Desai) denied a stay pending appeal of a district court preliminary injunction that blocked the cancellation of certain research grants. In the process, the court concluded that the cancellation likely violated the First Amendment:

Plaintiffs are six researchers at the University of California (UC) who applied for and received multi-year federal research grants from … the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) … and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)….

In April 2025, EPA and NEH sent form letters to Plaintiffs informing them that their grants were terminated. The EPA form letter states: "the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priori

See Full Page