From Politico: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore Voice of America, saying the effort to gut the 80-year-old government-funded news service likely violated the law and Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the administration’s rush to dismantle the VOA and related news organizations funded by the U.S. Agency for Global Media resulted in the suspension of hundreds of journalists and employees. It put some overseas correspondents at risk of being deported to their home countries, the judge noted. And Lamberth said the silencing of VOA — for the first time in 80 years — also deprived hundreds of millions of listeners of a reliable source of news in parts of the world that lack a free press.
Lamberth said the administration offered virtually no justification for the draconian cuts, suggesting it was working to comply with President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order requiring a significant scaling back of the agency. Yet the cuts were so bone-deep, Lamberth said, that they likely violated even Trump’s command that the programs continue to operate at legally required minimum levels of service.
“They took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the [executive order], and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world,” Lamberth said. “It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here.”
The judge, a Reagan appointee, is ordering the Trump administration to immediately restore all employees and contractors to their news programs and unfreeze funding streams for other affiliated networks like Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. He also ordered officials to restore VOA programming to fulfill the legal mandate that it “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.”
BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore Voice of America and several affiliated news services, finding the Trump administration’s efort to dismantle it likely violated the law. https://t.co/GjLdN3FrUX pic.twitter.com/g4EOwGC616
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 22, 2025
READ MORE from Politico.
Judge halts shutdown of Voice of America https://t.co/nnfyUNgev1
— POLITICO (@politico) April 22, 2025
🚨BREAKING: Federal Judge Royce Lamberth just issued an order saying the Trump administration must “restore” Voice of America state-funded media outlet, re-hire employees…suit involves Kari Lake – POLITICO
This judge sentenced me to prison for peacefully protesting on Jan 6th pic.twitter.com/Ib8kKmnjaU
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) April 22, 2025
President Trump had tapped former Arizona journalist Kari Lake, who ran unsuccessfully for both Arizona governor and the U.S. Senate, to lead the left-leaning government-funded media outlet. Initially, Lake had reportedly hoped to reform and save the agency, but said last month it’s so corrupt, it’s unsalvageable.
Now, a judge has declared it can’t be dismantled.
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