The Reagan-Appointed Judge Fast-Tracking Trump to Trial; The New York Times, June 18, 2025

 Zach Montague , The New York Times; The Reagan-Appointed Judge Fast-Tracking Trump to Trial

"After 40 years on the federal bench, Judge William G. Young recently experienced what he viewed as a career first, and it didn’t sit well with him.

“I have never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Judge Young said on Monday, excoriating the Trump administration in a lengthy speech from the U.S. District Court in Boston.

In keeping with his usual process, he had ordered a quick trial to debate the merits of two lawsuits challenging some of the government’s cuts to research grants and programs administered by the National Institutes of Health — the first trial in the more than 400 cases contesting nearly all aspects of President Trump’s agenda winding their way through the courts.

The grants at issue, which funded research into diversity-related topics like health disparities in Black and L.G.B.T.Q. communities, were canceled by Mr. Trump and N.I.H. leadership as part of the administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and roll back transgender rights. Judge Young cast his decision to block the cuts as his duty in following the Constitution...

When the government returned to present its case on Monday, many of the same questions re-emerged, and Judge Young reached his conclusion: The Trump administration had purposefully stopped health research that benefits vulnerable or underserved Americans.

“That’s appalling,” he said."

Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Focused on Minority Groups Are Illegal, Judge Rules; The New York Times, June 16, 2025

 Zach Montague, The New York Times ; Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Focused on Minority Groups Are Illegal, Judge Rules

"A federal judge on Monday declared some of the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health grants “void and illegal,” accusing the government of racial discrimination and prejudice against L.G.B.T.Q. individuals.

Ruling from the bench, Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts delivered a damning assessment of the Trump administrations’ motives in targeting hundreds of grants that focused on the health of Black communities, women and L.G.B.T.Q. people. He ordered the government to restore much of that funding for now, pending an appeal.

“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s L.G.B.T.Q. community,” he said. “That’s what this is.”

Judge Young, a Reagan appointee with 40 years of experience as a federal judge, said the government’s rationale for canceling some of the grants, which also supported research into topics such as gender identity and equity in health care, appeared to be rooted in prejudice. He cited the administration’s very public efforts to eliminate any trace of diversity and equity initiatives from the federal government, as well as its attacks on transgender people.

He said that over the course of his career he had “never seen government racial discrimination like this,” and that he felt duty bound to state his conclusion about the government’s intent.

“I would be blind not to call it out,” he said...

Kenneth Parreno, a lawyer representing the American Public Health Association, called the government’s actions part of a campaign to ban what the administration saw as “forbidden topics” in science by canceling grants related to race or transgender health."