A federal judge ruled Thursday that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency "blatantly used" race, gender, and other protected characteristics to execute the largest mass termination of federal grants in the history of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The ruling declared every termination unlawful and blocked the Trump administration from carrying them out.

The case revealed something remarkable about how those decisions were made. Two DOGE staffers, Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh, testified under oath that they used ChatGPT to determine which grants should be cut. They fed the AI a list of grants and asked it to flag anything related to DEI. They did not tell ChatGPT how they defined DEI. They did not review the grants themselves. They used keyword matching and an AI chatbot to decide which federally funded research projects should lose their funding.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon was unsparing. She found that DOGE staffers lacked the legal authority to make termination decisions, that their process "did not conform to, or even resemble, NEH's ordinary grant-review process," and that the use of protected characteristics as criteria for termination violated both the First and Fifth Amendments.

Holocaust Research, Cut Because It Mentioned Women

The specifics of what was cut make the ruling's language understandable. DOGE terminated funding for research on Black civil rights history, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the Asian American experience, and studies of how Native American children were treated in boarding schools. In each case, the research was flagged because it mentioned race, gender, or ethnicity.

One project about Jewish women who survived Nazi persecution was cut because it centered on "Jewish cultures and female voices." Judge McMahon wrote: "At a time when the specter of antisemitism has reemerged from the shadows, for our Government to deem a project about Jewish women disfavored because it centered on Jewish cultures and female voices is deeply troubling."

She added: "Treating Black civil-rights history, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the oft-forgotten Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of the children of Native tribes, or the mere mention of a woman as a marker of lack of merit or wastefulness is not lawful."

"Did You Reduce the Federal Deficit?" "No, We Didn't."

The depositions of Fox and Cavanaugh, released in March, were extraordinary. Neither man had worked in government before joining DOGE. Both came from tech and finance backgrounds. Cavanaugh described using keywords including "DEI, DEIA, Equity, Inclusion, BIPOC, LGBTQ" to identify grants for termination.

When asked whether he had any regrets about people losing income that supported their lives, Cavanaugh responded: "No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero." The attorney then asked: "Did you reduce the federal deficit?" Cavanaugh answered: "No, we didn't."

The First AI-Assisted Government Decision Ruled Unconstitutional

This appears to be the first time a US federal court has ruled that an AI-assisted government decision violated the Constitution. The ruling does not ban the use of AI in government. It does establish that using AI tools to make decisions that affect constitutionally protected rights requires the same due process, expertise, and authority as any other government action.

The implications extend well beyond humanities grants. Federal agencies across the government are exploring AI tools for decision-making in benefits, enforcement, hiring, and resource allocation. This ruling puts a marker down: if the humans using the AI do not have the authority to make the decision, and if the AI process does not meet basic due process standards, the decision will not survive judicial review.

The nonprofits that sued are celebrating. The American Council of Learned Societies said: "The humanities are not a luxury. They are how a democracy understands itself. Today's decision is a step toward honoring the will of Congress and our mission as a nation."

Reporting from ABC News, CNN, Reuters, and the New York Times contributed to this article.