A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America, the government funded broadcaster, at least temporarily. It's a dramatic turn in a series of legal cases revolving around the limits of executive power and the strength of the Constitution's protection of free speech.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to return Voice of America employees and contractors to their status before a March 14 executive order suspended their work. The order also covers the federally funded nonprofit news outlets Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. It is a preliminary injunction that takes effect while the case plays out in court.
Lamberth wrote that the administration's decision to dismantle the agency was
"Not only is there an absence of 'reasoned analysis' from the defendants; there is an absence of any analysis whatsoever," he wrote.
He also said the Trump administration was "likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws."
The Trump administration's legal team had argued that it was not violating VOA journalists' First Amendment rights because it has stopped all journalism rather than singling out any individual for their viewpoint. Lamberth said he found that argument "troubling." A request for comment from the Trump administration was not immediately returned.
Unions, journalist organizations and democracy advocates hailed the decision. Patsy Widakuswara, the VOA's White House Bureau Chief, and lead plaintiff in the case, said she was grateful for the ruling, but noted that the government was likely to appeal.
"This is not just about our jobs and journalistic freedom — it's for our own national security," she said. "Because every day that VOA is not broadcasting, is a day we cede the global information space and allow adversaries to fill it with disinformation and anti-American propaganda."
Radio Free Asia President and CEO Bay Fang also struck a cautionary tone and called on the Trump administration to release its funding.
"While we want to resume our operations as they were before, for that to happen we need to receive timely disbursement of our funding on a consistent basis," Fang said in a statement. "Until then RFA unfortunately remains in the same position as last month when we began to furlough our journalists and staff."
Furloughed journalists, padlocked offices
More than a thousand employees and contractors from Voice of America (VOA) and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting were suspended from work on March 15, following a late-night order from the White House to dismantle the federal agency which funds them, U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The White House as part of a broader effort to cut government waste on "frivolous expenditures that fail to align with American values or address the needs of the American people."
Since that executive order, VOA offices in Washington have been padlocked shut, its employees put on paid leave but cut off from their work emails, and contractors terminated. It was the first time broadcasts from the 83-year old institution were halted since it was during World War II to combat propaganda from the Nazi regime.
Employees of VOA sued the Trump administration and its advisor Kari Lake, who effectively oversees USAGM. In a court hearing Thursday, the government argued President Trump had not shut down VOA but instead had only temporarily "paused" its operations, allowing it to sidestep normal administrative procedures while considering what to do with parent agency USAGM.
"That's a little hard to swallow," Judge Lamberth said in response, adding it was a waste of "1,300 employees while the president tries to make up his mind."
The targeted networks deliver information to countries around the world that lack a robust or free press. The networks are intended to promote American democratic values by broadcasting news that models independent journalism, incorporates political debate and dissent even inside the U.S.
Lawyers representing the media organizations argued the attempt to close the broadcasters was not about reducing federal bloat but was, in fact, a "censorious" initiative.
Two news outlets left out of reprieve
Other government-funded international broadcasters are fighting against the Trump administration and Lake. The preliminary injunction Lamberth issued on Tuesday does not cover Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Open Technology Fund. The judge cited their current funding status in his memo.
Yet in late March, he temporarily barred the Trump administration from shuttering RFE/RL. The news outlet says it received its congressionally-allocated funds through the first half of March after Lamberth USAGM could not unilaterally its grant.
However, RFE/RL has still had to staff and the court to force USAGM to pay out the money it needs for the rest of the fiscal year. (Unlike Voice of America, which is owned by the government, RFE/RL is a nonprofit wholly dependent on federal grants.)
Lamberth refused to do so on Tuesday, saying it would be premature because RFE/RL and USAGM are negotiating the terms of the grant. He noted, however, that if those talks break down or the Trump administration indefinitely withholds funds that Congress has appropriated, bringing the news outlet to the brink of collapse, he would have good cause to act.
David Folkenflik contributed to this story.
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