2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

Federal agencies admitted using keyword filters to cancel nearly $2 billion in University of California research grants

In July 2026, federal agencies admitted in signed court stipulations that they terminated more than a thousand University of California research grants based on keyword searches for politically disfavored terms—including "health equity," "structural racism," and "vaccine hesitancy"—rather than merit-based review. The National Institutes of Health alone suspended or cancelled more than 1,000 UC grants flagged by an internal search tool, and the Department of Transportation terminated six grants worth $42 million for referencing terms like "transportation equity." Lawyers for the UC researchers cited the admissions as proof of First Amendment violations and moved for summary judgment against the Trump administration in federal court.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On July 21, 2026, CalMatters reported that federal agencies had admitted in signed court stipulations that they terminated more than a thousand University of California research grants based on keyword searches for politically disfavored terms—including "health equity," "structural racism," "vaccine hesitancy," and "sexual orientation"—rather than individual merit reviews. The stipulations, filed in Thakur v. Trump, showed that the agencies "did not terminate any grants based on alleged noncompliance with the terms of the grant" and instead applied "general criteria, rather than grant-specific assessment of each award's compliance, or performance," canceling nearly $2 billion in UC research funding.

The National Institutes of Health admitted using an internal search tool to flag UC grants mentioning "work force diversity," "health equity," "structural racism," and "sexual orientation," and suspended or cancelled more than 1,000 UC grants—including nearly 700 at UCLA—covering vaccines, cancer research, and health-outcome disparities. The NIH also disclosed that DOGE, the federal office led by Elon Musk in 2025, may have used artificial intelligence to identify additional grants for termination. The Department of Transportation identified six grants worth approximately $42 million for cancellation because the projects referenced "transportation equity" or "disadvantaged communities," causing 77 researchers to abandon 79 in-progress projects and resulting in layoffs or funding gaps for more than 40 graduate and undergraduate research assistants.

Lawyers for the UC researchers have moved for summary judgment in Thakur v. Trump, arguing that the admissions prove three constitutional violations: targeting researchers for their viewpoints in breach of the First Amendment; discriminating against grant recipients based on the political geography of their home states by canceling Department of Energy grants from states that voted for Kamala Harris while leaving comparable grants in Republican-leaning states untouched; and violating the spending clause by refusing to redirect congressionally appropriated research funds as federal law required. The Environmental Protection Agency, also named in the lawsuit, had entered settlement discussions with plaintiffs' counsel. A hearing on the summary judgment motion is scheduled for October 20, 2026.

Why we recorded this

Merit-based federal grant administration is a structural safeguard against the executive branch using public research funds as political tools. Federal agencies admitted in court that they terminated nearly $2 billion in University of California research grants by scanning for politically disfavored keywords— including "health equity," "structural racism," and "vaccine hesitancy"—without reviewing individual grant merit. The admission establishes that agencies applied a viewpoint-based screen, not a compliance test, when canceling the grants, and is now central evidence in a constitutional lawsuit arguing the administration violated the First Amendment and the spending clause by redirecting congressionally appropriated research funds based on political content.

Sources

  1. DEI keyword search led to billions in cancelled California university grants — CalMatters primary accessed July 24, 2026

See also