Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Court halts ‘mass termination’ of Institute of Museum and Library Services staff, (May 2, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

The firings were scheduled to occur on May 4, 2025.

A D.C. federal district court has granted a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo in a lawsuit brought by the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME) against the Acting Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), U.S. DOGE Service, Russell Vought, OMB, and others relating to the planned “mass termination” to occur at the Institute on May 4, 2025.

IMLS is a small independent agency that awards grants and offers services to libraries and museums, created by an Act of Congress in 1996. That Act—the Museum and Library Services Act—sets out requirements for IMLS, including certain grants that must be issued, as well as certain qualifications its director must possess. In 2025, Congress appropriated almost $300 million to IMLS.

However, on March 14, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14238, relating to reduction of the “federal bureaucracy” and, soon thereafter, he appointed the Deputy Secretary of Labor to serve as the IMLS acting director. DOGE officials also soon arrived to begin “shutting down the agency.” Most of IMLS’s employees were placed on administrative leave and all members of the IMLS’s board were fired. The Trump administration also began terminating IMLS grants and contracts. On April 7, the plaintiffs sued.

Likelihood of success on APA claim. Although initially the plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction, during oral argument on April 30, 2025, they moved to convert the motion to one for a temporary restraining order. The court agreed. Considering the factors applicable to obtaining a TRO, the court determined that the plaintiffs met their burden to obtain one. They showed a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, as the “wholesale termination of grants and services and the mass layoffs appear to violate the clear statutory mandates outlined in the MLSA.” Additionally, the defendants’ conduct, the court explained, contravenes Congress’s almost $300 million appropriation to IMLS. Thus, the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing this unilateral action violates, “at minimum,” the APA.

Irreparable injury. They also demonstrated irreparable injury, with libraries having to end programs, fire employees, and, in some circumstances, completely shutter because of the loss of access to the IMLS’s expertise, services, and data. “These harms are neither speculative nor remediable,” the court explained. And the balance of equities and public interest tip in favor of granting a limited TRO, the court concluded.

TRO granted. The court granted the TRO, finding the plaintiffs met their burden. It granted “only a narrow TRO to preserve the status quo of the date of this Order” in order to “prevent additional harm while allowing the Court to further consider the parties’ briefing on the PI.” It ordered that the defendants shall not take further actions to dissolve IMLS or its operations; place any additional IMLS staff on administrative leave; terminate the employment of any IMLS staff; or “further pause, cancel, or otherwise terminate IMLS grants or contracts or fail to fund such grants or contracts for reasons other than grantees’ or contractors’ non-compliance with applicable grant or contract terms.”

The case is No. 1:25-cv-01050-RJL.

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