National Institutes of Health v. American Public Health Association
Granted in part
No. 25A103·Stay application·Filed by the federal government·Presented to Justice Jackson·From United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
What did the Court do?
The Court granted part of the request on August 21, 2025: part of the lower court's ruling is on hold while the appeal continues.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. The Chief Justice, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, Justice Jackson, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would have ruled the other way.
Filed · Ruled · 28 days after filing
What's being asked
The federal government asks the Supreme Court to pause district-court judgments involving NIH research-grant terminations. Public health groups, researchers, and states challenged NIH grant terminations; the government says the district court lacked authority to order grant-related relief.
What the Court did
The Court partly helped the government: it granted part of the request (approved it) and denied the rest (refused it). It paused (stayed) judgments that wiped out the grant terminations, but refused a pause for other judgments; it did not decide who wins. Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson would refuse the request; Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh would grant it; Barrett concurred (agreed with the result).
Barrett: Concurred
Gorsuch: Dissented, wrote an opinion
Sotomayor: Dissented
Thomas: Dissented
Chief Justice Roberts: Dissented, wrote an opinion
Alito: Dissented
Kagan: Dissented
Kavanaugh: Dissented
Jackson: Dissented
Concurred in a separate opinion
Dissented
Wrote separately
Concurring · 1agreed with the result, wrote separately
The Court's record names every justice's position.
Filing60 days
Half of 82 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 10 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 28 days after filing.
What it means
This temporary order does not decide who wins the underlying dispute. The First Circuit appeal continues. No related Supreme Court merits case is listed, and the Court set no argument date for this application.
Separate writings
Justice Roberts, joined by Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson, concurring
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A103. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.