Judge Halts Trump Administration Efforts to Dismantle Voice of America

A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to reverse its efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA) and restore the decades-old federal news service. In an opinion delivered on April 22, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Royce Lamberth sided with plaintiffs suing the administration and U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) management, saying that they had likely violated the law in the rush to dismantle VOA and other federally-affiliated media groups in line with a March 14 executive order. “[Defendants] took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions … and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world,” Lamberth wrote....