Salles, et al. v. National Institutes of Health, et al.

The ACLU and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a class action lawsuit seeking to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research.

Researchers filed a class action lawsuit challenging the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) policy of blocking grants in order to censor views it disagrees with on issues ranging from DEI to gender identity. The lawsuit alleges that NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research, is unconstitutionally censoring research and allowing political ideology to override scientific expertise in determining which projects receive federal funding, contrary to congressional mandates.

The case brings claims under the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. While the government may set funding priorities and decide among competing proposals based on content, it cannot set or implement priorities in a manner aimed at suppressing disfavored viewpoints in private speech. NIH’s current policies violate the First Amendment because the government is using its funding power to target and silence disfavored viewpoints among the biomedical research community, particularly related to DEI, gender identity, and climate change, among others. This has the effect of stymieing research into the starkest health disparities, including those faced by communities of color and the LGBTQ+ population.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit seeks class-wide relief for all researchers whose work was unjustifiably terminated but whose grants have not yet been reinstated by a court order, as well as all researchers currently being impacted by unlawful, viewpoint-based policies that would lead to additional terminations, forced renegotiations, delays or application denials.