2026-05-08T04:44:12.569Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
美联社 供稿
2小时前
发布于 2026年5月8日 美国东部时间凌晨12:44
2025年4月拍摄于华盛顿特区的美国国家艺术基金会与美国国家人文基金会办公楼。《华盛顿邮报》/盖蒂图片社
美联社——
纽约一名联邦法官周四裁定，特朗普政府取消拨给学者、作家、研究团体及其他组织的逾1亿美元人文社科拨款的行为违宪，且政府效能部无权终止此类资助。
曼哈顿联邦地区法官科琳·麦克马洪支持作家行会、其他多个团体以及被取消资助资格并起诉政府效能部和美国国家人文基金会的个人诉求。麦克马洪永久禁止该政府部门终止相关拨款，并批评政府效能部利用人工智能撤销资助的做法。
政府律师曾辩称，削减1400多项国会批准的拨款是合法举措，旨在落实唐纳德·特朗普总统的指示，取消与分流、公平与包容相关的资助，并根据本届政府的优先事项削减可自由支配开支。
白宫和为此次诉讼辩护的司法部周四晚间未立即回复置评请求。目前尚不清楚政府是否计划提起上诉。
相关报道 美国非裔历史博物馆讲述18至19世纪马萨诸塞州历史上的黑人社区故事。布雷特·菲尔普斯/《波士顿环球报》/盖蒂图片社 特朗普的文化改革重创全美各地地方艺术与人文社科项目 阅读时长：6分钟
麦克马洪表示，政府违反了第一修正案和第五修正案的平等保护权，且政府效能部没有合法权限取消这些拨款。例如，她指出，当官员基于公平、多样性和包容性（DEI）标准取消拨款时，这是“典型的违宪观点歧视”。
“公共利益支持永久救济，”麦克马洪在判决书中写道，“公众有权强烈要求联邦官员在国会和宪法设定的框架内行事。”
包括美国学术团体理事会、美国历史协会和现代语言协会在内的多个起诉政府的团体在联合声明中对这一判决表示欢迎。
“这一裁决是我们努力恢复国家人文基金会履行国会赋予其重要使命的重要成就：帮助营造‘鼓励思想自由、想象力和探索自由’的人文环境，”美国历史协会执行主任萨拉·韦克塞尔说道。
作家公会的律师因卡·埃泽基尔·奥纳耶米称，此次拨款取消“直接攻击了宪法规定的言论自由和平等保护权”。
“我们对法院的判决感到满意，这维护了我们的当事人：那些为我们的民主做出极其重要工作的杰出学者、作家和机构，”奥纳耶米在一份声明中说道，“这也重申了国会60年来对人文社科领域的承诺，不会被越权的行政部门推翻。”
法官详细审查了政府官员如何将资助项目归类为DEI相关项目，并利用ChatGPT将其列为削减资助的目标。她举例称，官员们用人工智能平台将一本名为《大屠杀阴影下：苏联犹太作家短篇小说集》的选集贴上了DEI标签。她还列举了其他诸多案例。
麦克马洪同时驳回了政府的抗辩理由，即不存在宪法问题，因为任何观点分类都是ChatGPT所为，而非政府行为。
“ChatGPT是政府为该项目选定的工具，政府效能部使用人工智能识别与DEI相关的材料，既不能为推定的违宪行为开脱，也不能给予政府全权从事此类行为，”她写道。
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此次拨款取消计划于2025年4月公布，也就是特朗普发布题为《终止激进且浪费的政府DEI项目并优先考量》的行政令三个月后。2025年2月，特朗普还发布了另一项行政令，落实政府效能部的“成本效率倡议”。
时任美国国家人文基金会代理主席迈克尔·麦克唐纳致信受资助者，告知他们的拨款被取消。
在2025年4月1日致某组织的信中，他写道：“鉴于国家人文基金会正按照总统的议程调整资金分配方向，我们有合理理由终止您的资助。”
法官在判决书中写道，许多被取消的拨款都是在拜登政府时期获批的，仅有约40项拜登政府时期获批的拨款免于被削减。
麦克马洪写道，尽管新政府可以追求合法的资助优先事项，但“它无权压制不受欢迎的观点”。
在去年发布的临时禁令中，法官曾叫停此次拨款取消行动，该禁令涉及第一修正案及其他相关问题，当时法官称“被告基于受资助者的感知观点终止资助，旨在将此类观点驱逐出思想市场”。
Judge rules Trump administration’s cancellation of humanities grants was unconstitutional
2026-05-08T04:44:12.569Z / CNN
By Associated Press
2 hr ago
PUBLISHED May 8, 2026, 12:44 AM ET
The building that houses the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as seen in April 2025 in Washington, DC.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
AP—
The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.
US District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding.
Government lawyers had argued that the cuts of more than 1,400 grants of congressionally approved funds were legal moves to implement President Donald Trump’s directives, eliminate grants associated with diversion, equity and inclusion and reduce discretionary spending under the administration’s priorities.
The White House and Department of Justice, which defended against the lawsuit, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear if an appeal was planned.
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McMahon said the government violated the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection right, and DOGE did not have the lawful authority to cancel the grants. She wrote, for example, that it was “a textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination” when officials canceled the grants based on DEI.
“The public interest favors permanent relief,” McMahon wrote in her ruling. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that federal officials act within the bounds set by Congress and the Constitution.”
Several groups that sued the government, including the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association and Modern Language Association, hailed the decision in a joint statement.
“This ruling in an important achievement in our effort to restore the NEH’s ability to fulfill the vital mission with which Congress charged it: helping to create and sustain ‘a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry’ through the humanities,” said Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.
Yinka Ezekiel Onayemi, an attorney for the Authors Guild, called the grant cancellations “a direct assault on constitutional free speech and equal protection.”
“We’re pleased with the Court’s decision, which vindicates our clients: the brilliant academics, writers, and institutions doing work that is deeply important to our democracy,” Onayemi said in a statement. “It also reaffirms that Congress’s 60 year old commitment to the humanities cannot be dismantled by an overreaching executive.”
The judge scrutinized how government officials classified grant projects as DEI and used ChatGPT to target them for funding cuts. In one case, she said officials, using the AI platform, labeled as DEI an anthology titled “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union.” She also listed numerous other examples.
McMahon also rejected the government’s argument that there was no constitutional problem because any viewpoint classification was ChatGPT’s doing, and not the government’s.
“ChatGPT was the Government’s chosen instrument for purposes of this project, and DOGE’s use of AI to identify DEI-related material neither excuses presumptively unconstitutional conduct nor gives the Government carte blanche to engage in it,” she wrote.
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The grant cancellations were announced in April 2025, three months after Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” In February 2025, Trump issued another executive order implementing DOGE’s “cost efficiency initiative.”
Michael McDonald, then the acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sent letters to grant recipients informing them that their grants were canceled.
In a letter to one organization on April 1, 2025, he wrote, “The NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
Many of the canceled grants were awarded during the Biden administration, and only about 40 grants awarded by that administration were spared from the cuts, the judge wrote.
McMahon wrote that while a new administration may pursue lawful funding priorities, “it has no license to suppress disfavored ideas.”
In a temporary block of the grant cancellations issued last year that raised First Amendment and other issues, the judge said the “defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients’ perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas.”