Judge rules Trump administration wrongly canceled NEH and humanities grants

On 2026-05-08, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan ruled that the Trump administration's cancellation of more than $100 million in NEH humanities grants was unconstitutional and permanently barred the terminations. The decision also held that the Department of Government Efficiency lacked authority to end the funding and criticized the use of artificial intelligence in the grant review process.