Publishers’ Weekly:
“A federal judge has ruled in favor of 21 states’ attorneys general and ordered a halt to the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, [the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)].”
Rhode Island district court judge John J. McConnell Jr ruled decisively in favor of the attorneys general of lead plaintiffs New York, Rhode Island, and Hawaii together with Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The court order instructs the defendants—among them IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling, secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, and President Donald Trump—to cease efforts to eliminate IMLS, the [MBDA] and the [FMCS]. Per the judge, compliance also involves restoring employees and contractors who were “involuntarily placed on leave or involuntarily terminated” and resuming “the processing, disbursement, and payment of already-awarded funding,” including grants that are in limbo or canceled.
The order follows McConnell’s May 6 memorandum, which gave his reasoning for a preliminary injunction. In the memorandum, the judge wrote that the defendants’ actions in the implementation of the order are unconstitutional and violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the Take Care Clause, and the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. The defendants now have seven days to file a status report confirming “full compliance with” the court order.
Attorneys for the defense wrote to the judge on May 9 that, because an order would require “sweeping relief across various agencies” and because “access to technology and office space may delay complete implementation,” seven days would not be adequate to comply. The judge imposed that timeline nevertheless. In his May 13 order, McConnell wrote in no uncertain terms that defendants “must promptly take all necessary steps to reverse any policies, memoranda, directives, or actions issued before this Order, that were designed or intended, in whole or in part, to implement, give effect to, comply with, or carry out the directives contained” in the order.
New York state attorney general Letitia James hailed the decision as a significant win for [all] who depend on IMLS, MBDA, and FMCS….
On the heels of the order, the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — AFSCME, “the largest trade union of public employees in the United States [representing] 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, corrections officers, sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, and childcare providers — plaintiffs in ALA v. Sonderling, supplied additional evidence in their own IMLS case, to request a comparable preliminary injunction in the public interest, referencing American Federation of Government Employees v. Trump and Rhode Island v. Trump, and that federal government must abide by its own laws, D.C. district court judge Richard J. Leon having previously issued only a “narrow” temporary restraining order and received a defense request to reconsider.
Use the top link to read the full article, including data and reportage supplied to the court by pseudonymous IMLS staffer Alex Albright on planned anti-DEI and anti-climate specifics of the current administration in regard to the IMLS, and the involuntary leave of staff responsible for Freedom-of-Information requests, which have been “pouring in”.
