Underground Railroad museum sues Trump administration alleging it canceled grant on the basis of race

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 21, 2026, 8:17 PM EDT


An Underground Railroad museum in upstate New York alleged in a lawsuit Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated its federal grant on the basis of race, pointing to President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle diversity-focused initiatives.

The Underground Railroad Education Center, located in Albany N.Y., alleges in its lawsuit that the National Endowment for the Humanities' cancelation of a $250,000 grant amounted to viewpoint and racial discrimination, violating the First and Fifth Amendments, respectively.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York, calls for the funds to be reinstated. The suit cited Trump's January 2025 executive order that required federal agencies to eliminate any operations supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within 60 days. The 40-page brief outlined 1,400 grants that were terminated in early April 2025 "for their conflict with President Trump’s EOs and the new agency priorities adopted in their wake."

Nina Loewenstein, a lawyer for the museum, told NBC News that there is "just no legitimate basis" for the grant's cancellation, adding that it is "just explicitly erasing things associated with the Black race."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/underground-railroad-museum-lawsuit-trump-grant-canceled-dei-diversity-rcna264586

[GiqueCee]

1. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion...

are dirty words to racist filth like Trump and his malignant minions. There is NO reasonable or sane rationale for his contemptible condemnation of DEI; it is nothing more than flat out malicious bigotry at an utterly obscene scale. But, regardless of the mountains of evidence of his staggering character flaws, hard-core MAGAts still maintain their delusional devotion to the worst thing to happen to this country since the Civil War: That semi-sentient tumor, Donald J. Trump. They're ALL write-offs, because they don't even have minds to change.

[Prairie Gates]

2. More depositions for the DOGE boys

Fight fire with fire.

[snot]

3. All of his grant revocations should be illegal.

Even if a grant isn't exactly a binding contract, I believe there's a doctrine called "promissory estoppel that says, if you knowlingly make a promise or representation to someone, and they act in reliance on it, and the breach of your promise or representation would cause harm to them, then they have a right to force you to honor your representation or promise or sue for damages or something.

I understand the need for governmental immunity in many situations, but imho, willful, wrongful actions by individuals in government should not be deemed to be "within the scope of their employment" and shielded by immunity; rather, the individuals should be held personally liable for the damage caused.