The NAACP announced Monday the group will not invite President Donald Trump to its national convention next month in Charlotte, N.C., the first time the prominent civil rights organization has opted to exclude a sitting president in its 116-year history.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson announced the move at an afternoon press conference, accusing Trump of working against its mission.

“This has nothing to do with political party,” Johnson said in a statement. “Our mission is to advance civil rights, and the current president has made clear that his mission is to eliminate civil rights.”

A message to the White House seeking comment was not returned.

In recent months, the NAACP has filed multiple lawsuits against Trump.

In April, for example, the group sued to stop the Department of Education from withholding federal money for schools that did not end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, arguing the department was prohibiting legal efforts to provide equal opportunity to Black students.

NAACP officials noted that the decision was weighty in that the organization had long invited presidents with whom it disagreed.

Notably, Republican President George W. Bush addressed the group’s convention in July 2006, after months of criticism for his administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which had a disproportionate impact on Black residents in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

Judge rules canceling research grants illegal

A federal judge ruled Monday it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination.

U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a hearing Monday on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could be canceled for that reason when some were designed to study health disparities as Congress had directed.

Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, went on to address what he called “a darker aspect” to the cases, calling it “palpably clear” that what was behind the government actions was “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”

After 40 years on the bench, “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young added. He ended Monday’s hearing saying, “Have we no shame.”

During his remarks ending the hearing, the judge said he would issue his written order soon.

Harvard can still admit foreign students for now

President Donald Trump’s order to block incoming foreign students from attending Harvard University will remain on hold temporarily following a hearing Monday, when a lawyer for the Ivy League school said Trump was using its students as “pawns.”

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston extended a temporary restraining order on Trump’s proclamation until June 23 while she weighs Harvard’s request for a preliminary injunction. Burroughs made the decision at a hearing over Harvard’s request, which Trump’s Republican administration opposed.

Burroughs granted the initial restraining order June 5, and it had been set to expire Thursday.

Trump moved to block foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard earlier this month, citing concerns over national security. It followed a previous attempt by the Department of Homeland Security to revoke Harvard’s ability to host foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Mass. Burroughs has temporarily blocked that action, too, and is weighing whether it should remain on hold until the case is decided.

Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told Burroughs on Monday that Trump was “using Harvard’s international students as pawns” while arguing the administration has exceeded its authority in an attempt to retaliate against the school for not agreeing to the president’s demands.

“I think there is no finding that Harvard is dangerous,” he said.

Trump fires nuclear agency commissioner

President Donald Trump has fired a Democratic commissioner for the federal agency that oversees nuclear safety as he continues to assert more control over independent regulatory agencies.

Christopher Hanson, a former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in a statement Monday that Trump terminated his position as NRC commissioner without cause, “contrary to existing law and longstanding precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees.”

The firing of Hanson comes as Trump seeks to take authority away from the independent safety agency, which has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades. Trump signed executive orders in May intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, a goal experts say the United States is highly unlikely to reach. To speed up the development of nuclear power, the orders grant the U.S. energy secretary authority to approve some advanced reactor designs and projects.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an emailed statement that “all organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction” and that the Republican president reserves the right to “remove employees within his own executive branch.”

— From news services