A federal appeals court on Tuesday suspended a lower court ruling that had ordered Voice of America’s employees back to work and ruled President Trump’s shutdown attempt was illegal.
The ruling also applies to other networks in the U.S. Agency for Global Media, such as Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Network.
The ruling, by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, creates an odd situation where Congress has funded VOA this year, and employees are getting paid, but the administration has told them not to show up at work.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, had ordered them back to the job in a ruling two weeks ago.
He said the law laid out specifics about how much VOA and USAGM’s other networks should be broadcasting, and the president’s orders interfered with that.
“While these statutes undoubtedly call for USAGM leadership’s judgment regarding how to effectuate Congress’s broadcasting directives, they have no discretion regarding whether to do so,” he said in his decision.
He said the 1,054 USAGM employees put out of work — most of them from VOA — must return.
But the three-judge panel of the appeals court saw things differently.
“The district court’s orders … are stayed to the extent that they require that ‘all employees placed on administrative leave pursuant to defendants’ March 2025 directive shall return to work,’” the appeals court ruled.
