Month: July 2026

But these conditions are not only a bad idea–they are unlawful and, indeed, likely to be challenged in court. As I explain below, they suffer from three principal defects: the Trump administration lacks authority to impose them; they conflict with the Constitution’s Spending Clause; and they are the product of arbitrary-and-capricious decisionmaking.

In May, a federal court dispensed the administration a dose of reality. The case, American Council of Learned Societies v. National Endowment for the Humanities, concerned an initiative closely related to DOGE’s deregulatory push: its mass cancellation of NEH grants in 2025.