A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency terminations of more than 1,400 National Endowment for the Humanities grants were unconstitutional. Judge Colleen McMahon found the mass cancellations violated First Amendment rights and the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, ordering the agency to rescind the cuts. The cases were brought by scholarly organizations and individual grant recipients, including the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association of America. The ruling described that DOGE officials used ChatGPT to identify grants “in violation” of executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—flagging certain humanities-related terms as potentially triggering. McMahon said the harm extended beyond lost funding, describing disruption to protected expression, interruption of ongoing research and publications, cancellation or suspension of humanities programming, and a “chilling effect” from viewpoint-based and unauthorized criteria. The decision has immediate higher education ripple effects: it can restore funding continuity for humanities research, stabilize institutional planning tied to grant calendars, and reinforce limits on how federal agencies may evaluate and terminate sponsored research. It also raises scrutiny over the use of AI in compliance-style determinations where viewpoint-based criteria are alleged.