FASEB Joins Scientific Societies in Filing Supreme Court Amicus

By: Yvette Seger
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
On August 1, FASEB joined three other scientific societies – American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), and American Society for Microbiology (ASM) – in filing an expanded amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in American Public Health Association v. National Institutes of Health. The brief urges the court to deny the government’s request for a stay pending approval, emphasizing the immediate and irreparable harm caused by the termination of grants supporting early career scientists.

The four organizations partnered to file an amicus brief on behalf of the defendants on May 2 that highlighted the immediate and irreparable harm of grant terminations on early-career scientists. In June, a bench ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge William Young indicated that directives leading to the terminations were “arbitrary and capricious” and had “no force and effect.” While the ruling did not immediately reinstate the terminated grants, it was a critical victory in ensuring scientists from rural and economically disadvantaged communities, as well as those underrepresented in biomedical research, have access to funding to pursue research-intensive careers.