The Trump administration is still prohibiting National Institutes of Health (NIH) staff from issuing virtually all grant funding, an NIH official tells Popular Information. The ongoing funding freeze is also reflected in internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information and was reiterated to staff in a meeting on Monday. The funding freeze at NIH violates two federal court injunctions, two legal experts said.
The funding freeze at NIH puts all of the research the agency funds at risk. As the primary funder of biomedical research in the United States, NIH-funded research includes everything from cancer treatments to heart disease prevention to stroke interventions.
I believe there can’t be state charges in this because that would imply a state court ordering a federal agency to do something which i believe is more or less impossible due to the Supremacy Clause.
But the capricious nature of Deputy Assistant President Trump is a real danger to these people, especially if whatever illegal thing they’re doing for him gets big bad publicity and could make him unpopular.
Federal officials can still be subject to state charges if they break state law. It’s not a matter of ordering a federal agency to do anything, so the supremacy clause should not be relevant here. The question is what state laws could they be breaking? There may not be any.