For federal grant recipients across diverse sectors ranging from humanitarian assistance to the environment, the disruption of established business practices and the upending of expectations have now become the new normal, as...more
Welcome to the February 2026 edition of Thompson Coburn’s Higher Education Litigation Summary, your resource for timely legal updates on key rulings and ongoing cases shaping the higher education sector. Bold text indicates...more
Last week, the Supreme Court declined to review Percipient.ai, Inc. v. United States, 153 F.4th 1226 (Fed. Cir. 2025), a high‑profile Federal Circuit decision that limits who may bring a protest at the U.S. Court of Federal...more
Key Takeaways: Executive Order 14169, issued on January 20, 2025, placed a 90-day pause on foreign aid while its alignment with U.S. foreign policy was reviewed....more
The Trump Administration’s unprecedented terminations of federal contracts and grants have affected organizations seeking options and remedies. Universities, academic research institutions, federal contractors, and state and...more
In 2025, the government has canceled or discontinued billions of dollars in federal grants. Entities seeking to challenge these terminations have faced uncertainty as to which forum is appropriate for such claims. A federal...more
Whether a protester has standing to challenge a government bid process or award is typically clear for actual bidders, but it can be less clear for lower-tier participants like subcontractors and prospective bidders. The...more
The Administration’s dramatic cutbacks to federal funding have changed the landscape and presented new and unprecedented challenges for funding recipients across a range of industries....more
On Tuesday, September 2, the Trump Administration scored a victory in its ongoing efforts to roll back clean energy initiatives and grants....more
The Supreme Court issued a fractured, 4-1-4 ruling on its emergency docket in National Institutes of Health v. American Public Health Association, No. 25A103, 606 U.S. ____ (2025) (per curiam) (“NIH”) on August 21, 2025....more
The Supreme Court recently ruled for the second time that federal district courts likely lack jurisdiction under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) to hear challenges to terminations of federal grants. The first such...more
Those doing business with the government may face an ogre’s choice at the intersection of two Supreme Court decisions and longstanding Federal Circuit precedent precluding jurisdiction over non-procurement contracts....more
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to permit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to terminate hundreds of grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives worth approximately $800 million. The...more
Organizations challenging an agency’s termination of a grant or government contract based on an allegedly illegal government policy need to master a two-step dance, according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Under the...more
On July 24, 2025, the Trump Administration turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to block U.S. District Judge Young’s preliminary injunction prohibiting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from cutting hundreds of grant...more
Following the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) announcement of a new project review process in May 2025, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) issued the first round of DOE grant terminations under the Trump...more
Much has been written during recent years regarding the increasing volume of government acquisitions and spending effected under Other Transaction (OT) authority. These transactions are generally exempt from the requirements...more
Federal grantees facing the termination of their grants by the new administration have challenged those terminations by filing suits under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in federal district courts. In about a half a...more
While not a decision on the merits, the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on April 4, 2025, in Department of Education v. California is worth considering....more
In a decision published on Feb. 24, 2025, Judge Armando Bonilla of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC or Court) weighed in on the ongoing debate about jurisdiction over protests of other transaction agreements (OTAs). The...more
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo upended decades of precedent that required courts to defer to agencies' interpretations of statutes. This, known as the Chevron doctrine, allowed for...more
The Situation: The Federal District Court for the District of Arizona recently dismissed MD Helicopters' Other Transaction ("OT") protest for lack of jurisdiction. The court reasoned that, although the OT was not a...more