A district court judge said Wednesday he’s inclined to block the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the independent agency responsible for distributing federal dollars to the nation’s museums and libraries.
A lawsuit filed in federal court by the American Library Association (ALA) says the efforts have all followed a similar pattern: summary terminations of some or all of the agency’s board; installation of an acting agency head; and then mass terminations of grants and employees. According to the suit, the entire 75-person staff of IMLS was placed on leave last month by acting director Keith Sonderling, a former EEOC commissioner who served as deputy secretary of labor during President Donald Trump’s first term.
In court Wednesday, attorneys for the ALA and the nation’s largest federal workers union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said the efforts to dismantle IMLS have already had real-world effects.
Attorneys for the Justice Department argued, as they have in other similar cases, that ALA’s claim is a contract dispute that should be settled in the Court of Federal Claims. Abigail Stout, an attorney with DOJ’s Civil Division, said the courts should not get in the middle of what she described as fundamentally a policy dispute with the Trump administration.
“Policy disagreements are best suited for Congress and the ballot box,” Stout said.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush who heard the arguments Wednesday, was apparently not sold by the government’s case, however.
“I must say, based on what I’ve heard so far I’m inclined to grant the [temporary restraining order],” Leon said.
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