Trump Administration Must Halt Voice of America Dismantling (1)

The Trump administration must temporarily roll back its efforts to shutter the Voice of America, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The government “took immediate and drastic action to slash” the US Agency for Global Media,” without considering its statutory obligations or “regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world,” Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in an opinion granting preliminary injunctive relief in two cases challenging the constitutionality of the administration’s efforts to close the news outlet. “It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here,” Lamberth added.

The administration must restore the employment of VOA workers, agreements with contractors, and grants to USAGM networks that were terminated, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order directing the agency’s dismantling.

VOA Director Michael Abramowitz and two VOA journalists sued the administration over actions it took last month to shutter the organization, following Trump’s executive order directing agency officials to eliminate, “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” entities including USAGM. VOA is one of several global media outlets within USAGM.

About a week before Abramowitz’s filing, a group of other VOA journalists in Widakuswara v. Lake also sued USAGM, its acting CEO Victor Morales, and senior adviser Kari Lake. A New York federal court on March 28 temporarily barred the administration from taking further action to shutter USAGM or VOA in the Widakuswara case, which was transferred to Washington, D.C.

Placing on administrative leave or terminating all VOA employees, freezing the organization’s congressionally appropriated funds, and effectively “forcing VOA to go dark” violate “myriad acts of Congress,” Abramowitz asserted in a motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order.

Morales and Lake in a filing opposing the Abramowitz preliminary injunction request accused the plaintiffs of bringing a “scattershot attack” against the president’s authority and said their claims are “nothing more than employment actions cloaked as administrative procedure or constitutional challenges” that will ultimately fail. Their alleged anticipated injuries are also too “speculative” to establish irreparable harm, the government argued.

But the government’s actions likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, since the significant workforce cuts make it unlikely that the remaining 33 individuals can fulfill USAGM’s “broad statutory mandate,” Lamberth said. The decision to cut funding to USAGM broadcast networks also “directly violates congressional appropriation laws,” the judge wrote. And the actions were arbitrary and capricious because there’s “an absence of any analysis whatsoever.”

The plaintiffs also adequately alleged irreparable harm that “impacts the very existence of USAGM, the health and safety of its journalists and employees, and the interests of the millions of reporters and listeners who depend on USAGM’s programming,” Lamberth wrote.

Lamberth also rejected the government’s argument that he lacks jurisdiction over the contract termination claims, given the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Department of Education v. California, in which the court struck down a federal judge’s temporary order barring the Education Department from canceling grants after finding the government is likely to show the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the contractual claims.

The grants at issue here are “involved only as a vehicle to distribute congressionally appropriated funds” to USAGM networks because “Congress passed laws directing USAGM to provide grants to specific grantees, and appropriated funds for those grantees specificially,” Lamberth said.

In Widakuswara, Lamberth granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction as it applies to USAM entities Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP represents the Abramowitz plaintiffs. Ballard Spahr LLP; Government Accountability Project; Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP’ Democracy Forward Foundation; State Democracy Defenders Fund; and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represent the Widakuswara plaintiffs.

The cases are Abramowitz v. Lake, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00887, 4/22/25 and Widakuswara v. Lake, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01015, 4/22/25.