Court Pauses Orders Blocking Trump Cuts to Global Media Agency

Orders preventing the Trump Administration from withholding US Agency for Global Media funds were temporarily paused by the D.C. Circuit on Thursday.

The orders issued by Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia were administratively stayed so the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia can have “sufficient opportunity” to consider the various motions in the cases. But the stay shouldn’t be taken “in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions,” the unsigned per curiam order said.

• Two cases challenge the constitutionality of the administration’s effort to shutter broadcaster Voice of America. “It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here,” Lamberth said, granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction
• Lamberth also granted Radio Free Asia’s and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks Inc.'s motions for a preliminary injunction on their claim that USAGM didn’t have the authority to unilaterally stop giving them funds already appropriated by Congress
• Lamberth also issued a temporary restraining order in another case that requires USAGM to disperse more than $12 million in congressionally appropriated funds to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard, Gregory G. Katsas, and Neomi Rao are on the panel.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP represents the Abramowitz plaintiffs; Government Accountability Project, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, Democracy Forward Foundation, American Foreign Service Association and Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic-Yale Law School, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represent the Widakuswara plaintiffs; Democracy Forward Foundation and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP represent Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks Inc.; and, Covington & Burling LLP represents RFE/RL.

The cases are Widakuswara v. Lake, D.C. Cir., No. 25-5144, order issued 5/1/25; Abramowitz v. Lake, D.C. Cir., No. 25-5145, order issued 5/1/25; Middle East Broadcasting Networks v. United States, D.C. Cir., No. 25-5150, order issued 5/1/25; Radio Free Asia v. United States, D.C. Cir., No. 25-5151, order issued 5/1/25; and RFE/RL Inc. v. Lake, D.C. Cir., No. 25-5158, order issued 5/1/25.