The judge didn't say that. Should have, but did not.
A federal judge on Friday rejected a bid by 16 Democratic-led states to force U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars of grants it canceled that support increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Democratic state attorneys general had urged U.S. District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan to block the National Science Foundation from canceling funding awarded to universities designed to increase the participation of women, minorities, and people in those fields, known collectively as STEM.
They had argued in a lawsuit filed in May that the Trump administration lacked the power to cap research funding and eliminate diversity programs provided by the NSF that were mandated by Congress and urged the judge to reverse grant terminations that began in April.
But Cronan, a Trump appointee, agreed with the administration that a challenge to NSF's already-completed grant terminations could not be pursued in his court but instead could only be taken up by the Court of Federal Claims, a specialist court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government.
He said the states likewise failed to show a new NSF policy stating that research "must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere" and that research projects that preference "subgroups of people" do not reflect the agency's priorities was inconsistent with the agency's governing statute.
The same day that policy was posted in April, NSF began canceling grants that had been previously issued that touched on among other topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump has sought to eliminate DEI from the government and society.
In another win: DOJ's Civil Rights Division ended a 44-year-old consent decree -- I think that arises from a leftwing lawfare group suing and friendly government bureaucrats agreeing to give the lawfare group all that it demanded -- which mandated not just DEI in federal hiring but a determined hostility towards actual skills and qualifications.
I may have mentioned this on Friday: Another woke DEI university employee was caught on video admitting that she is defying the law and continuing to discriminate against the Bad Races and Bad Sex.
Yesterday Fox News published an undercover video of an administrator at the University of Iowa admitting the school was superficially complying with the elimination of DEI buzzwords but simultaneously "finding ways to operate around" efforts to end DEI practices.
[Fox News:]
The official, Drea Tinoco, assistant director for Leadership and Student Organization Development at the University of Iowa, pointed out in the undercover recording how in early spring the university's leaders began directing an end to DEI initiatives and policies.However, as Tinoco points out, that didn't stop her or others at the school from continuing to advance the discriminatory measures.
"We're essentially finding ways to operate around [the bans], so that was our solution. We were like, 'Oh, okay, we can't use that word? Okay -- "civic engagement."' I think that's a lot of what we're doing, it's like, 'Oh, okay, we're not allowed to use this word. Oh, okay. We're just going to do this,'" Tinoco can be heard saying in the video. "That's why you're not going to see DEI listed on any University of Iowa website ... but there have been transitions and things that they've done, so they're not like getting rid of certain things."...
"It definitely is still here, it definitely still exists," Tinoco can be heard saying on the undercover recording. She also suggests her superiors are supportive of defying orders to dismantle DEI policies at the university, and says that when collaborating with other schools in the state, the University of Iowa staff are typically the most "combative" when it comes to standing in the way of getting rid of DEI policies.
"On behalf of my office. We are, we're still going to talk about DEI. We're still going to do all the DEI things. My assistant dean is a Black woman, and I could not imagine her being like, 'Okay guys. Yeah. We're just not going to talk about DEI anymore,'" Tinoco says on the video recording."I have yet to be told, like 'Dre, you can't say DEI.' And I'm still going to say it," she adds.
Christopher Rufo is celebrating the "demolishing" of DEI, but others think he's celebrating before actual winning.