Judge orders more than 1,000 Voice of America employees to be reinstated

A Republican-appointed federal judge has ordered that more than 1,000 Voice of America (VOA) employees be reinstated after a Trump administration order effectively dismantled the radio network, triggering mass layoffs.

In two separate rulings made Tuesday, the US district judge Royce Lamberth said that attempts to shut down operations of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent federal agency that oversees VOA, are illegal and mandated that employees return to work by 23 March.

Lamberth further instructed the agency to create a plan for how it will return VOA back to the air.

Lamberth’s latest order comes only 10 days after he ruled that former USAGM director Kari Lake illegally led the agency, writing that Trump’s attempts to place Lake and others into leadership “are unlawfully withholding mandatory agency action”. Lake oversaw USAGM from 31 July to 19 November 2025, laying off more than 1,000 employees.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Lake said she planned to appeal Lamberth’s ruling on the lawful status of her leadership.

Last year, Lake was also blocked by a federal judge from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA director. Abramowitz and another group of employees later filed separate lawsuits against the government.

Abramowitz hailed Lamberth’s ruling in a statement to the Washington Post. “Voice of America has never been more needed,” he said. “I am grateful for the resilience and dedication of VOA’s amazing workforce.”

Plaintiffs in the other suit, former employees Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, called Lamberth’s ruling a “monumental decision” in a statement to the Post.

“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” the group wrote.

VOA is the US’s largest and oldest international broadcaster, providing funding for news agencies such as Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. Its employees have been on paid administrative leave for a full year, the Post reported.

The Trump administration has tried to defund the agency since 2025, instructing Lake to shrink the agency down to “minimum presence and function required by law”.