Washington– Court of Appeal Committee He agreed on Tuesday By suspending a federal judge’s order for the Trump administration to return hundreds of Voice of America employees to work from paid leave.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a stay of execution pending the government’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling Verdict of March 17. More than 1,000 Voice of America employees will remain on administrative leave while the appeals court hears the case, a process that could take months.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore operations of the government-run Voice of America radio after it was effectively shut down a year ago. Lamberth was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan.
The case was assigned to Circuit Judges Karen Lecraft Henderson, Robert Wilkins and Gregory Katsas.
Henderson was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Wilkins was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama. Katsas was nominated by Trump, a Republican.
Voice of America has broadcast news reports to countries around the world since its founding during World War II. Before Trump’s executive order, the channel operated in 49 different languages ​​and broadcast its programming to 362 million people.
VOA has been operating with a small staff since Trump issued an executive order shutting it down.
Lamberth also ruled that Carrie Lake, Trump’s pick to lead VOA, did not have the legal authority to do what she did at the agency.