A federal judge has ruled against President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze $2.4 billion in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants allocated to research on gender identity and other fields tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The judge said the Trump administration must immediately restore the grants, but he didn’t officially rule on whether Trump’s anti-DEI orders are illegal — the case under the judge remains ongoing and could eventually result in an important ruling against Trump’s anti-DEI crusade.

“This [freezing of NIH grants] represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. “Any discrimination by our government is so wrong that it requires the court to enjoin it and at an appropriate time, I’m going to do it,” he added, promising a possibly more sweeping future ruling on the grants and Trump’s orders, NBC News reported.

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In April, 16 U.S. states and researchers from numerous grantee organizations sued the Trump administration, accusing it of overseeing an “ongoing ideological purge.” Researchers — who came from organizations like the American Public Health Association and the Ibis Reproductive Health and International Union — said Trump’s January executive order directing all federal agencies to end all government funding of DEI-related initiatives, violated constitutional rights freedom of speech as well as the separation of powers between the president and Congress since only Congress is legally allowed to change laws regarding budgetary allotments.

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During the non-jury trial, Thomas Ports, an attorney representing Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) said some of the cancelled NIH grants were for studies that weren’t “scientifically valuable.” However, Ports reportedly didn’t define DEI nor list the allegedly harmful effects of DEI-related research, Axios reported.

Ports read an NIH statement which said DEI-related studies “are often used to support unlawful discrimination.” However, in response, Young said, “I see no evidence of that.”

“I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young said during oral arguments, referring to Trump’s anti-DEI orders. “Is it true of our society as a whole? Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?”

He added, “I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it, that this represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”

In an ACLU of Massachusetts press release on Young’s ruling, plaintiff Dr. Brittany Charlton, associate professor at Harvard Chan School of Public Health, said, “Today’s decision is a crucial step in protecting public health and safeguarding critical research that helps us understand, prevent, and treat life-threatening diseases. Scientific research must be guided by evidence, not political agendas, and this ruling rightly restores important research projects that should never have been disrupted.”

Young’s ruling is the second recent federal court ruling against Trump’s executive orders seeking to deny congressionally-approved funding to pro-LGBTQ+ organizations and health centers that pursue DEI initiatives and so-called “gender ideology.”

In early June, Judge Jon S. Tigar — an appointee of former President Barack Obama — wrote that the Gender Termination Provision and Gender Promotion Provision that appear in three of Trump’s executive orders violate the Constitution by trying to censor free speech and due process. Tigar said the provisions are “transparently motivated by a ‘bare desire to harm’ transgender people.”

In April, three federal judges separately ruled against the Trump administration’s threats to cut federal funding for schools with DEI programs. In February, Lambda Legal and the NAACP began assisting the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago with their lawsuit against Trump’s anti-DEI orders.

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