U.S. District Court Judge Asks How the Government Defines DEI

“US District Judge William G. Young on Thursday pointedly questioned a government lawyer in Boston on how the Trump administration defines DEI — the acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion — as a rationale to slash more than $1 billion in medical research grants.

“When you say to me, DEI, as though that’s bad, I don’t understand what that means,” Young told Anuj Khetarpal, a federal attorney who had asked the judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to halt funding cuts by the National Institutes of Health.

“Someone’s got to help me on that,” Young added. “I’m not making policy statements. I’m asking for a definition of a policy that squares with what I had always understood were the defining elements of the American experience.”

“Does that mean our policy is homogeneity, inequity, and exclusion? I mean, are you going to stand there and tell me, that now is the policy of the National Institutes of Health?” Young asked.

“Your honor,” Khetarpal replied, “I am not making that assertion.”

“It would be a breathtaking assertion,” Young said.”

As reported in Boston Globe

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