VOA reporters' return to work unclear after court blocks injunction
The Voice of America (VOA) reporters' plan to return to work next week is up in the air after an appeals court issued a stay on Saturday, halting a late April order from a district judge that prevented the administration from dismantling the international broadcaster.
The court, in a 2-1 opinion, ruled that the federal government is likely to succeed on the underlying facts of the case and that district court judge Royce Lamberth likely lacked 'subject-matter' jurisdiction to shoot down parts of President Trump's mid-March executive order regarding the expenditure of government grants and personnel actions.
The ruling dealt a blow to VOA staffers, who were notified on Friday that they could resume broadcasting and return to their office in Washington the following week. One VOA employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, described it as 'devastating.'
In the Saturday order, judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, both Trump appointees, ruled in the government's favor.
'While USAGM's employees and contractors might have viable, discrete claims with respect to their individual personnel actions, those claims must be pursued through other remedial channels,' the duo said in the 39-page order.
Cornelia Pillard, the third judge on the panel, who was appointed by former President Obama, dissented.
'The purpose of a stay pending appeal is to maintain the status quo until a case can be fully adjudicated on its merits. This stay does the opposite, silencing Voice of America for the foreseeable future and eliminating Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks' ability to see this case through to the end,' Pillard wrote.
Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial candidate, who serves as a senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, applauded the appeals court's decision.
'BIG WIN in our legal cases at USAGM & Voice of America. Huge victory for President Trump and Article II,' Lake wrote in a post on the social media platform X. 'Turns out the District Court judge will not be able to manage the agency as he seemed to want to.'
The Hill has reached out to USAGM for clarity on the court's decision.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday notified attorneys representing VOA workers that they could go back to the office and resume work, which has been paused for nearly two months, next week.
'USAGM currently expects staff to begin to return to the office next week, as security, building space, and equipment issues require a phased return,' said an email from DOJ to lawyers representing VOA staffers late Friday, which was obtained by The Hill.
'With respect to VOA programming, as mentioned above, all VOA staff should now have system access. USAGM anticipates VOA programming to resume next week. In the interim, staff at OCB will assist and help getting programming on the air,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda González Horowitz said in an email to VOA lawyer David Seide.
The return to programming would mark nearly two months after President Trump's executive order, which was rolled out on March 14, sought to dismantle seven federal agencies, including USAGM, that in addition to overseeing VOA, also dishes out government funds to outlets such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
Trump and his allies have long-criticized VOA, a government-funded international outlet founded in 1942 that broadcasts in nearly 50 languages. The president and his supporters have often contended that the outlet's coverage is unfair to conservatives.
The push to permanently shut down VOA was slowed down in court, however. Lamberth, the district court judge, ruled on April 22 that the administration's push to terminate VOA and its affiliated newscasters was unlawful and ordered USAGM to restore the international outlet, along with other news services within the agency's portfolio.
'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 EO, and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world,' Lamberth, an appointee of former President Reagan, wrote in last month's order about the administration.
'It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants' actions here,' Lamberth added.
Some VOA reporters have had their access fully restored as of Saturday, one source briefed on the matter told The Hill.
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