In that case, plaintiffs argued that the DOE terminated the grants because the prime recipients were in “blue states” that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Those states also have two senators who caucus with the Democratic Party. This, they claimed, violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee and the First Amendment.

“Given that this case presents parallel legal and factual issues as Saint Paul, the parties have conferred and agree that it is in the interest of justice and judicial economy for the parties to enter into the same stipulations as in Saint Paul,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in the ruling.

The restored grants will go toward grantees located in Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Minnesota, and New York. They are focused on energy efficiency and solar and hydrogen technologies, among other projects.

The grants were among a total of $7.5 billion that were cancelled in October 2025. In the initial complaint in April, plaintiffs cited Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, who posted the following on X:

“Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY . The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.”

“Solely for purposes of this case, Defendants also agree to maintain the representation made by the government in Saint Paul that ‘it would be legally sufficient for equal protection purposes to find that a primary reason for the termination decisions at issue is because of location in blue states,’” Mehta wrote.