Federal Judge Says DOGE’s AI-Driven Grant Cuts Were Unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that the US DOGE Service unlawfully canceled more than $100 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants after using ChatGPT to identify programs that mentioned diversity, equity, and inclusion. In a sharply worded decision, Judge Colleen McMahon said the cuts violated the First and Fifth Amendments and amounted to “a textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.”
The case centered on grants that had been flagged for DEI-related language, including projects on the Holocaust, HIV in prisons, and Indigenous culture at Mesa Verde National Park and Wupatki National Monument. The government argued that the AI, rather than DOGE employees, determined what counted as DEI. McMahon dismissed that defense, writing that the explanation did not absolve the government of responsibility. She also said Congress had not given DOGE authority to cancel funding it had already appropriated.
The ruling lands at a moment when public funding decisions, especially those touching culture and education, are under unusually close scrutiny. It also raises a broader question about how far agencies can lean on generative AI when making judgments that affect speech, access, and institutional support.
The same news roundup also pointed to France, where Parliament unanimously passed its third framework law to streamline the restitution of artworks looted during the colonial era and now held in public collections. The new law replaces the old item-by-item process with a committee review, followed by a ruling from France’s highest administrative court and implementation by government decree. Museums will also be expected to take provenance research more seriously.
Elsewhere in the art world, American Folk Art Museum workers protested for better wages and benefits outside the museum’s annual gala, Indonesian-born artist Dian Suci won the 2025–27 Max Mara Art Prize for Women, a restored Banksy mural titled “Migrant Child” will tour Venice, and Keith Haring works from Kermit Oswald’s collection are on view at Sotheby’s in New York ahead of auction.
