WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that the near shutdown of Voice of America was illegal and has ordered the government to reinstate more than 1,000 people who were placed on leave from the media organization. The order by District Judge Royce Lamberth amounted to a sharp rebuke to the administration, which has aggressively sought to shrink and remake VOA through Kari Lake, the ally of President Donald Trump who has served as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Politico reported Lamberth said in a pair of rulings that Lake’s moves to close the agency violated federal administrative law and directed that the employees return to work by March 23. He also ordered a resumption of international broadcasting, which the U.S. has used for decades to promote press freedom around the world.
Beginning in early 2025, hundreds of journalists were placed on administrative leave and then targeted for layoffs, with more than 600 cuts announced by summer and ultimately roughly 85 percent of staff eliminated across the agency. The reductions were so deep that VOA, which once broadcast in nearly 50 languages to hundreds of millions of people, was pared down to a skeleton operation with only a handful of language services still running.
“We are thrilled with Judge Lamberth’s ruling and look forward to getting back to work,” said Michael Abramowitz, the VOA director who was placed on administrative leave by the administration. “Voice of America has never been more needed.”
Lamberth issued a scathing review of the government’s “flagrant and nearly year-long refusal” to uphold statutory requirements set by Congress, adding that Lake “thumbed her nose” at the requirements.
Lamberth ruled earlier this month that Lake was illegally empowered to run USAGM and her actions in that role were illegitimate, saying she was ineligible to serve as acting CEO when she was formally elevated to the position last July in an “acting capacity” and without Senate confirmation. She relinquished that title on Nov. 19.
Last week, at the request of Lamberth, USAGM announced that Sarah B. Rogers, under secretary of State for diplomacy and public affairs, will be Trump’s nominee for USAGM CEO. Until she is confirmed by the Senate, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Michael Rigas will serve in the position. Employees who brought the case, including Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, celebrated the latest rulings.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” they said in a statement.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult. We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
A spokesperson for USAGM did not immediately return a request for comment. “This egregious ruling is the latest example of judicial overreach and this Department of Justice will continue to defend Article II authority wherever challenged,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
Steve Herman, a former White House correspondent for VOA, called the ruling “a comprehensive legal defeat for Elon Musk’s DOGE lackeys, the self-proclaimed USAGM ‘deputy CEO’ Kari Lake and others in the Trump administration who sought to eviscerate the Voice of America.” While Lamberth’s latest order reversed the involuntary leave and firings imposed on full-time employees of the agency, he declined to restore the contracts for about 600 personal service contractors who worked for USAGM or VOA prior to the Trump administration cuts last March. The judge said Supreme Court rulings over the past year have made clear that litigation related to contracts can only be pursued through a specialized court, the Court of Federal Claims.
Last April, Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction ordering the restoration of both the employees and the contractors. However, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals later lifted those requirements, while leaving in place a directive to maintain VOA’s activities. One of the lawyers challenging the cutbacks, Norman Eisen of the Democracy Defenders Fund, hailed Lamberth’s latest decision.
“It’s a vast repudiation of the illegal actions taken to attempt to dismantle Voice of America and USAGM,” Eisen said.“The court’s prior rulings already counteracted some of the worst decisions of the administration, but this one really offers the opportunity for a substantial renewal of operations.”
