Three federal agencies on Donald Trump’s chopping block have been saved by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. sided with a 21-state coalition Tuesday, issuing a preliminary injunction to halt one of Trump’s executive orders dismantling federal agencies that support libraries, museums, minority businesses, and mediation services. They included the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
The March order also marked the end of four other agencies, including the United States Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
In a 49-page memorandum, McConnell wrote that Trump’s order blatantly ignored the separation of powers and violated the Administrative Procedure Act “in the arbitrary and capricious way it was carried out.”
“It also disregards the fundamental constitutional role of each of the branches of our federal government; specifically, it ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the law and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the law Congress enacted and spends the funds Congress appropriated,” McConnell wrote.
The sweeping order translated to mass layoffs, grant freezes, and whopping reductions. Last week, another federal judge paused planned layoffs at the IMLS responding to a related lawsuit brought by the American Library Association.
“The States have presented compelling evidence illustrating that the harms stemming from the dismantling of IMLS, MBDA, and FMCS are already unfolding or are certain to occur, in light the significant reduction in personnel available and competent to administer these agencies’ funds and services and the elimination of certain programs that served the States,” McConnell noted.
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