The federal government has admitted, in court filings, that it used keyword searches to identify and cancel university research it politically opposed.

Federal agencies cancelled more than 1,000 University of California research grants worth nearly $2 billion, not because anything was wrong with the research, but because the projects mentioned terms like "health equity," "work force diversity," or "sexual orientation," according to signed court stipulations in the case Thakur v. Trump. There was no individual review of each grant on its merits. Court filings confirm the agencies relied on "general criteria, rather than grant-specific assessment of each award's compliance, or performance," according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.

The human cost is already here. Cancer studies have been abandoned mid-project. Vaccine safety research has been halted. The cancellation of three transportation grants led by a UC Davis professor alone forced 77 researchers to abandon 79 in-progress projects and laid off more than 40 graduate students, according to court records.

These grants were not discretionary presidential gifts. Congress passed laws requiring this money to be spent on research. By cancelling $2 billion and never redirecting a single cent of it, the Trump administration violated the constitutional principle that Congress, not the White House, controls how public funds are spent.

Federal Judge Rita F. Lin has repeatedly ordered the grants restored while the case proceeds. A hearing on a final ruling is scheduled for October 20.

An administration that can erase research by scanning for disfavored keywords today can silence any science it dislikes tomorrow. Sign to demand the Trump administration restore UC's cancelled research grants and end the political keyword screening of federally funded science.