First Amendment Likely Precludes Trump Administration's Canceling DEI-Promoting Contracts, Ninth Circuit Holds
The Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump Administration's cancellation of contracts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) likely violates the First Amendment. The court emphasized that the government cannot discriminate against viewpoints within funding programs. This decision highlights the complexity of viewpoint discrimination in government subsidies.
- ▪The Trump Administration canceled academic grants based on recipients' DEI viewpoints.
- ▪Grant recipients argued that these cancellations were unconstitutional due to viewpoint discrimination.
- ▪The Ninth Circuit affirmed that the government cannot suppress disfavored viewpoints in funding decisions.
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| Original publisher | Reason Magazine |
| Canonical URL | https://reason.com/volokh/2026/05/26/first-amendment-likely-precludes-trump-administrations-canceling-dei-promoting-contracts-ninth-circuit-holds/ |
| Publication time | Tue, 26 May 2026 19:44:20 +0000 |
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First Amendment Likely Precludes Trump Administration's Canceling DEI-Promoting Contracts, Ninth Circuit Holds Eugene Volokh | 5.26.2026 3:44 PM There's a lot happening in today's decision in Thakur v. Trump, by Ninth Circuit Judges Richard Paez, Morgan Christen, and Roopali Desai, but I thought I'd focus on the First Amendment analysis. To oversimplify, the Trump Administration canceled a wide range of academic grants "because of the recipients' perceived expression of DEI, DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility], or environmental justice viewpoints." The grant recipients sued, arguing that such viewpoint-based cancellations are unconstitutional. The law related to viewpoint-based conditions attached to government subsidies is complicated.
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