A US federal judge has criticized some terminations carried out under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), saying the process was unlawful, poorly designed and “deeply disturbing”.US District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled on Thursday that large-scale cancellations of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) could not be tolerated, barring the Trump administration from enforcing them and criticizing how they were carried out.“There can be no serious dispute that the review process implemented by DOGE was not consistent with, or even similar to, NEH’s normal grant-review process,” Judge McMahon wrote.The court found that DOGE staff lacked the proper authority to make the decision and said the dismissals were carried out in a manner that ignored established procedures. In his ruling, the judge concluded that protected characteristics were used improperly during the review process.“Judge McMahon declared the terminations unlawful, concluded that DOGE employees did not have the authority to make those decisions, and blocked the Trump Administration from terminating the grants.”He said that the method used by DOGE was discriminatory in practice.“The mere mention of black civil-rights history, Jewish testimony about the Holocaust, the often-forgotten Asian American experience, the shameful treatment of children of Native tribes, or a woman as a marker of lack of competence or extravagance is not valid,” she said.The judge also focused on specific cuts to projects involving Holocaust studies and said the reasoning behind them was worrying.She said, “At a time when the specter of anti-Semitism is looming again, for our government to deem a project about Jewish women offensive because it focuses on Jewish cultures and female voices is deeply troubling.”The decision comes after several nonprofit organizations challenged the grant cancellations in court, arguing that the cuts undermined humanities research and ignored congressional intent. He welcomed the decision and called it an important protection of cultural and educational works.The case focuses on actions taken after Donald Trump returned to the White House and empowered Musk to help drive federal cost-cutting efforts through the newly minted DOGE along with Ohio Republican primary Vivek Ramaswamy. Agencies had already been directed to suspend diversity-related programs and staff.Court documents and statements released earlier this year revealed how two DOGE employees, Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh, helped identify grants for cancellation using keyword filters. These included terms like “DEI”, “equity”, “inclusion” and “LGBTQ”.Kavanaugh acknowledged in testimony that the approach was blunt, though he defended the broader objective of cutting spending.“Aren’t you sorry that people may have lost vital income that supports their lives?” one lawyer asked Kavanaugh.Kavanaugh said, “No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero.”“Did you reduce the federal deficit?” The lawyer asked.“No, we did not,” Cavanaugh said.Neither Fox nor Kavanaugh worked in government before joining DOGE.