Federal Judge Orders 1,042 Voice of America Staff Reinstated, Declaring Kari Lake's Actions Unlawful and Void

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate more than 1,000 Voice of America employees and restore the broadcaster's full operations, finding that Kari Lake, the president's handpicked overseer of the network, had "repeatedly thumbed her nose" at statutory requirements and that her entire tenure at the helm of the U.S. Agency for Global Media was unlawful and void. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth is among the most sweeping judicial rebukes of the Trump administration's campaign to dismantle the federal government's global broadcasting apparatus.

Lake, a loyalist whom Trump tapped to serve as senior adviser to USAGM in early 2025, oversaw the systematic shutdown of VOA operations over the following months, placing 1,042 of the agency's 1,147 employees on paid administrative leave and slashing programming from 49 languages serving approximately 362 million people worldwide to just four language services. The Trump administration said the cuts were necessary to eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse." Employees who were cut said the administration was eliminating an 80-year-old public diplomacy institution that has served as a beacon of free press for people living under authoritarian governments from Russia to China to Iran.

Judge Lamberth's order, issued March 17, requires the reinstatement of all 1,042 employees by March 23 and the restoration of VOA's broadcast operations. In his ruling, Lamberth found that Lake's appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the Constitution's Appointments Clause because she lacked Senate confirmation and was not performing the duties of an officer confirmed for a different position. As a result, all actions she took to carry out Trump's executive order — including the mass placement of employees on leave — are legally "void." The government "made no effort to defend the merits" of its downsizing decision and relied solely on procedural arguments, Lamberth wrote, and the administration's moves were "arbitrary and capricious" under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The administration moved quickly to limit the fallout. Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, a State Department official with foreign policy credentials, to formally lead USAGM in Lake's place — a nomination that will require Senate confirmation. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration planned to appeal, calling Lamberth's ruling an overreach that interferes with presidential authority over executive branch agencies. Legal scholars said an appeal was unlikely to succeed in the short term given the clarity of the appointments clause analysis, but noted the ultimate resolution could reach the Supreme Court and could have major implications for the president's ability to use informal appointees to implement sweeping agency changes.

For the more than 1,000 VOA journalists and technicians suddenly reinstated, the ruling was a significant but cautionary victory. The administration retains the power to restructure USAGM through properly authorized channels — meaning it could still dramatically cut funding or staff through the normal legislative and regulatory process once a Senate-confirmed director is in place. Several employees told reporters that while they were relieved to have their jobs restored, they expected the administration to look for other avenues to curtail VOA's independence. A group of VOA journalists who had been broadcasting in defiance of the shutdown from an alternative location said they would continue to monitor compliance with the reinstatement order closely in the days ahead.