Reagan-Appointed Judge Scorches Trump Admin in Striking Down DEI Cuts: ‘Never Seen Government Racial Discrimination Like This’
President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington, after attending a crypto dinner at Trump National Golf Club Washington DC. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
A federal judge appointed during the Ronald Reagan era accused President Donald Trump’s administration of racial discrimination for its DEI-driven health cuts.
On Monday, Massachusetts U.S. district judge William Young ruled that Trump’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health were “illegal” and “void.” Young ordered the restoration of the grants.
The ruling was reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney, who included more of Young’s comments in a thread on Twitter/X.
“I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it — that this represents racial discrimination,” Young said in his ruling. “And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out.
“It is palpably clear that these directives and the set of terminated grants here also are designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health — we’re talking about health here, the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That’s appalling.”
Young added that he had “never seen government racial discrimination like this.”
“I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” he continued. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this … I ask myself, how can this be?
“I have the protection that the founders wrote into the Constitution, along with imposing upon me a duty to speak the truth in every case. I try to do that. What if I didn’t have those protections? What if my job was on the line, my profession… Would I have stood up against all this? Would I have said, ‘You can’t do this?’ You are bearing down on people of color because of their color. The constitution will not permit that. Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?”
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