Judge blocks Musk regime from cutting federal research funds - and orders it to prove it's still paying out the money

Update: Massachusetts and New York hospitals and a national group of medical schools ask to join suit. Complaint linked at the end of the story.

A federal judge in Boston today blocked the National Institutes of Health from making immediate cuts in research grants - many already approved by the government - and to file proof now and then every two weeks that it is continuing to distribute the money.

The ruling, by US District Court Judge Angel Kelley, does not mean that Massachusetts and 21 other states will ultimately win their case, but that their universities, hospitals and other research facilities will continue to get their money while the case proceeds in court. Massachusetts said that had the cuts gone into effect, facilities with NIH grants here would be facing a $1 billion shortfall.

However, the ruling also assumes the current regime will, in fact, obey a court order - Lord Musk wants to impeach judges who rule against him and his functionary in the White House.

Kelley ordered the Washington hegemon to supply proof within two days that the money is still being sent out - and to then file reports every other week showing the same.

At issue is an edict issued by NIH in Friday slashing money not for direct grants but for separae "indirect expenses" - that literally keep a roof over researchers and their lights on - which in some cases can amount to more than 60% of the grants won by researchers, but which the federal government said it would immediately limit to 15%. The edict would apply not just to future grants but to ones the government had already agreed to.

A group of 21 states, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, sued this morning, charging the diktat is arbitrary and capricious, and so illegal, in part because  it rescinds money already approved, violates the will of Congress in determining how to spend federal research dollars and gives no rationale for reducing the maximum indirect costs per grant to 15%. 

Kelley's ruling came on their request for a temporary restraining order came just a few hours later.

Just yesterday, Campbell vowed to fight "the smallest man who ever lived" - referring to Trump, not his puppeteer. 

Massachusetts is also the lead plaintiff in a suit against another regime edict that assumes the White House can just ignore the 14th Amendment and bar people born here from automatically becoming US citizens.