Trump flouted judge's order by canceling Seattle Children's grant, Washington AG says
Washington's attorney general asked a federal judge Thursday to hold the Trump administration in contempt for allegedly canceling a grant to Seattle Children's Hospital to research innovative gender-affirming care interventions.
In the motion filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the state says the National Institutes of Health revoked the grant despite a court order, sending a letter to researchers that said 'this award no longer effectuates agency priorities.'
'Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans,' the letter written by an NIH official adds. 'Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs.'
A second letter on Tuesday said the agency was stripping Seattle Children's of more than $200,000, potentially forcing the hospital to pay back grant money already spent.
At the time of the Feb. 28 revocation, a temporary restraining order blocked the implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order looking to halt federal funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The restraining order came in response to a lawsuit filed by Washington and other states, along with physicians.
Late that night, Judge Lauren King agreed to block the Trump administration from enforcing the president's order, issuing a preliminary injunction that will remain in place while litigation continues. The injunction covers the four states involved in the lawsuit: Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado.
The same day, the Department of Government Efficiency posted on the social media platform X that NIH had canceled grants totaling $10.9 million.
When the attorney general's office reached out about the revoked funding for Seattle Children's, Justice Department attorneys responded by saying that the grant termination didn't violate King's orders because NIH 'terminated the grant based on its own authorities,' wrote William McGinty, of the attorney general's office.
'Under Defendants' stingy and self-serving reading of the Court's injunctions they can cancel any grant they want to, as long as they don't admit why they're doing it,' McGinty wrote. 'That is not how this works. Injunctions are not suggestions — they are binding orders of the Court. Defendants may not evade this Court's orders through game-playing.'
McGinty claims the Seattle Children's grant is one of hundreds similarly defunded.
In a letter to grant recipients Thursday, the Health Resources and Services Administration said it was examining $367 million in awards to 59 children's hospitals across the country related to gender-affirming care.
In a declaration filed in court, the lead researcher on the canceled Seattle Children's grant wrote this is 'harmful to the health of the transgender and gender-expansive patients I serve.'
'It communicates that the healthcare needs and specific healthcare vulnerabilities of 'Transgender' youth do not matter,' the researcher wrote.
The attorney general's office is now asking King to hold the administration in contempt and pay attorneys fees for its work on this issue. McGinty requested a hearing next Friday.
A White House spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
This isn't the first case where Trump has been accused of skirting a court order. For example, a judge last month said the administration continued to withhold foreign aid despite a temporary block by finding a new reason for halting funding.
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