In a decisive legal rebuke to the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered the immediate restoration of Voice of America (VoA), the federally-funded news organization that had been dramatically dismantled by executive order earlier this year.
The ruling, issued Tuesday, grants a preliminary injunction in favor of VoA employees and contractors who sued the administration after being either furloughed or outright terminated as part of a sweeping reorganization effort aimed at reshaping U.S. state media.
The lawsuit, filed in March, challenged an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that sought to eliminate the bulk of VoA’s operations, shutter its parent agency — the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — and dramatically reduce its international presence. The plaintiffs asked the court to cancel the administrative leave imposed on 1,300 full-time employees, reverse the termination of 500 contractors, and restore VoA’s operating capacity.
Judge Lamberth granted their request, stating that the administration’s actions required further legal review and that dismantling the agency prior to such review could cause irreparable harm — not just to the employees, but to the U.S. government’s ability to communicate abroad.
The March executive order declared that certain “non-statutory components” of U.S. international broadcasting — including VoA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — would be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The administration justified the move by accusing the agency of abandoning objectivity.
“Voice of America has been out of step with America for years. It serves as the Voice for Radical America,” a senior White House official told Fox News Digital. “It has pushed divisive propaganda for years now.”
The EO restructured the government’s approach to global media, shifting toward what Trump advisors described as a “national interest first” strategy — though critics say it was closer to a political purge.
In response, VoA employees sued the administration and Kari Lake, who was appointed as special advisor to USAGM. The complaint accused the White House of trying to shutter the agency entirely under the pretense of combating bias.
“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone,” the lawsuit reads. “Only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void.”
They argued that Trump’s actions not only undermined America’s credibility abroad but violated statutory protections for public broadcasting and employee rights.
