Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—D.C. Circuit doubles down on staying injunctive relief order that would have reinstated USAGM workers, (May 27, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

On May 3, a divided D.C. Circuit granted the government’s motion for a partial stay of a preliminarily injunction that required the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to restore its employees and contractors to their pre-EO status.

In a brief per curiam order issued on May 22, 2025, the D.C. Circuit, responding to petitions for rehearing en banc, which moved for en banc reconsideration and vacatur of a May 3, 2025, order issued by the court, has ordered that the motions be denied.

In the May 3, 2025, order, which was also issued per curiam, a divided D.C. Circuit granted the government’s motion for a partial stay pending appeal of a preliminarily injunction that required the USAGM, which oversees six federally funded broadcast networks including the Voice of America (VOA), to restore its employees and contractors to their status as it was prior to the issuance of President Trump’s Executive Order directing USAGM leadership to reduce the agency to the minimum level of operations required by statute.

Background of litigation. President’s Trump’s March 14 Executive Order, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, had directed agency leadership to reduce USAGM to the minimum level of operations required by statute, agency leadership had placed over 1,000 employees on administrative leave, terminated nearly 600 personal-service contractors, and terminated RFA’s and MBN’s grant agreements for the 2025 fiscal year. The agency had also directed its personnel abroad to cease broadcasting through VOA.

Preliminary injunctions. In response, various plaintiffs, including USAGM employees, contractors, and grantees, challenged these actions in court in several lawsuits. Below, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction in one of the cases, requiring USAGM to (1) restore its employees and contractors to their pre-March 14 status; (2) restore its FY 2025 grants with RFA and MBN; and (3) restore VOA as “a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.” In an order issued alongside that decision but in a separate case, the court also granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, noting in the order some of the distinctions between the cases for purposes of review. As expected, USAGM appealed, leading to the May 3 and May 22, 2025, orders by the D.C. Circuit.

The D.C. Circuit cases are Nos. 25-5144 and 25-5145. The district court cases are Nos. 1:25-cv-01015-RCL and 1:25-cv-00887-RCL.

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