Chicago – April 23, 2025
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America, the government funded broadcaster, at least temporarily. It’s a dramatic turn in a series of legal cases revolving around the limits of executive power and the strength of the Constitution’s protection of free speech.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to return Voice of America employees and contractors to their status before a March 14 executive order suspended their work. The order also covers the federally funded nonprofit news outlets Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. It is a preliminary injunction that takes effect while the case plays out in court.
Lamberth wrote that the administration’s decision to dismantle the agency was “arbitrary and capricious.”
“Not only is there an absence of ‘reasoned analysis’ from the defendants; there is an absence of any analysis whatsoever,” he wrote.
He also said the Trump administration was “likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws.”
The Trump administration’s legal team had argued that it was not violating VOA journalists’ First Amendment rights because it has stopped all journalism rather than singling out any individual for their viewpoint. Lamberth said he found that argument “troubling.” A request for comment from the Trump administration was not immediately returned.
Unions, journalist organizations and democracy advocates hailed the decision. Patsy Widakuswara, the VOA’s White House Bureau Chief, and lead plaintiff in the case, said she was grateful for the ruling, but noted that the government was likely to appeal.
