The Trump Administration scored a decisive legal victory on Saturday that could have sweeping implications for the separation of powers and the fight against judicial overreach. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a stay on a lower court’s ruling that had forced the reinstatement of over 1,000 Voice of America (VOA) employees—an unprecedented move that had threatened to derail the administration’s restructuring of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
This is a major win not only for President Trump but for the principle of executive authority as outlined in Article II of the Constitution. The ruling now allows the administration to continue streamlining and overhauling USAGM, including its notoriously left-leaning subsidiaries like VOA, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Free Asia.
“This is a huge victory for President Trump and his Article II powers,” said senior USAGM advisor Kari Lake. “Now that we have a favorable ruling in the appeals court, we look forward to accomplishing the plan we’ve always had—to bring VOA into the 21st century.”
The lower court ruling—issued by Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee—had ordered the administration to reinstate terminated employees and revert to outdated operational standards. But Saturday’s appellate court decision clarified that the judiciary does not have blanket authority to interfere with personnel and funding decisions within the executive branch, especially regarding grantee organizations that are not direct arms of the federal government.
This could become a landmark case. The ruling directly challenges the tidal wave of activist lower court rulings that have attempted to kneecap Trump’s reform agenda via “lawfare”—the weaponization of the courts to block administrative action. As Judicial Watch founder Tom Fitton noted on X, “If upheld, this push back on judicial activism could largely destroy the Left’s judicial coup against Trump’s effort to restore political control of the administrative state.”
Trump’s March 14 executive order aimed to cut waste and modernize the USAGM. It resulted in the termination of more than 1,300 employees and the cancellation of bloated contracts used to funnel taxpayer money into bloated propaganda mills. Unsurprisingly, the Left cried foul and ran to the courts.
But this time, the court didn’t play along. And it could signal the end of the judiciary’s open season on executive authority.
Score one for the Constitution. And for draining the swamp.
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