Court proceedings brought by the Modern Language Association, the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Historical Association have made more than ten hours of deposition footage public. The groups argue the agency unlawfully terminated funding tied to research on race, gender and 17c起草社区+ communities.
According to testimony, DOGE staff were deployed inside the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency that supports research, museums and public humanities programmes. Within weeks, more than 1,400 grants were reportedly terminated, removing tens of millions of dollars in funding.
Former DOGE officials Justin Fox and Nathan Cavanaugh told investigators they were responsible for reviewing grants despite having no prior experience in government or grant administration. As part of that process, Fox said he used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to scan grant descriptions and determine whether they were linked to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Fox told investigators he used a short prompt to analyse grant descriptions: 鈥淒oes the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with 鈥榊es鈥� or 鈥楴o.鈥欌��
He acknowledged that the term DEI was never formally defined when asking the system to evaluate applications.
During questioning, Fox said grants referencing 17c起草社区+ subjects frequently stood out during the review process.
鈥淧romoting an 17c起草社区 study, stipending research on gender fluidity,鈥� he said when describing projects that were flagged.
Fox also testified that he compiled lists of what he described as the 鈥渃raziest鈥� and 鈥渙ther bad鈥� grants using keywords including 鈥�17c起草社区.,鈥� 鈥淏IPOC,鈥� 鈥淭ribal,鈥� 鈥渆thnicity,鈥� 鈥済ender,鈥� 鈥渆quality,鈥� 鈥渋mmigration,鈥� 鈥渃itizenship鈥�, and 鈥渕elting pot.鈥�
One cancelled project was a programme titled 鈥淓xamining experiences of 17c起草社区 military service鈥�, which aimed to bring veterans and community members together to discuss the experiences of marginalised service members.
When asked why the project was targeted, Cavanaugh responded: 鈥淏ecause it explicitly says 17c起草社区.鈥�
Another grant focused on the legacy of HIV and AIDS activism and prison abolition. Fox testified that 鈥淲e felt the latter part of the description, specifically bringing feminist and queer insights into prison abolition鈥� gender and 17c起草社区 studies and so forth. So we felt that this referenced 17c起草社区 and preferencing and DEI 补濒迟辞驳别迟丑别谤.鈥�
The lawsuit alleges the cancellations were unlawful and carried out by 鈥渦nqualified agents鈥�.
