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A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Government Efficiency, among others, preventing those federal agencies from terminating grants awarded to Oregon arts and cultural organizations.
The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, arrives amid a lawsuit filed by Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils against DOGE in April, and rules that the sudden revocation of NEH grants awarded to the plaintiffs was unlawful. Additionally, it orders NEH acting chairman Michael McDonald and DOGE acting administrator Amy Gleason not to spend the plaintiffs’ award money on any other purpose while the litigation continues.
Simon’s ruling disagreed with several of the government’s arguments, including that the plaintiffs’ non-Oregon members were trying to join the lawsuit and that dispersing funds already awarded to plaintiffs under the Biden administration would “cause irreparable harm.”
Programs affected by Oregon Humanities’ sudden loss of funds includes Portland’s nonprofit Vanport Mosaic, Corvallis’ Multicultural Library, and Otis’ Conexión Fénix, an organization that hosts cultural festivals and educational opportunities for coastal Latino communities.
“One of the ‘most direct and significant benefits’ to Congress of the NEH structure is the ‘Federal/State Partnership,’ under which NEH provides grants to state and other jurisdictions in the United States, which then spend that money within their jurisdictions on local humanities projects,” Simon wrote. “In creating this structure, Congress specifically recognized the importance of ‘guaranteeing the stability and assurance of federal funding.’”
Oregon Humanities executive director Adam Davis praised the preliminary injunction finding in a statement.
“This is one step—among many that are needed—in the large, ongoing endeavor to knit our communities and the country closer together,” he said.
Simon also quoted the late Michigan Rep. William D. Ford—whose accomplishments included helping pass the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, among others—in his ruling: “The arts and the humanities are not frills, but are crucial to our Nation’s survival and continued freedom.”
