Hearing Set in ALA Lawsuit to Block IMLS Destruction
The schedule appears to accommodate an ALA request that the court rule by May 4, which ALA lawyers cite as the date a "mass termination" of IMLS staff is reportedly set to take effect.
Federal Judge Richard Leon has set an expedited briefing schedule to hear the ALA’s emergency motion to block the Trump Administration’s effort to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
In a brief order, the court set a deadline of April 21 at midnight for Trump administration lawyers to respond to the ALA’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Lawyers for the ALA will then have until April 28 at 10:00 a.m. to file a reply to the government’s brief. And a hearing on the motion is set for April 30.
That schedule accommodates the ALA’s April 10 request—which was unopposed by the Trump Administration—that a hearing be scheduled within 21 days “due to the exigencies of Defendants’ ongoing dismantling of IMLS.” The motion also asks the court for a ruling by May 4, which the ALA claims is the date on which the "mass termination of IMLS staff is reportedly set to take effect." It is certainly conceivable that Leon could rule on the motion within days of the April 30 hearing, although it would remain to be seen if an appeals court would stay any decision to enjoin the administration while a potential appeal plays out.
Meanwhile, the ALA could also get help from another court. A federal judge in Rhode Island was set to hear a motion for a similar injunction on April 18 in a case filed by 21 states in federal court in Rhode Island.
The ALA’s motion for a preliminary injunction comes after it filed suit on April 7 in federal court in Washington D.C. seeking to block the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the IMLS as laid out in Trump’s March 14 executive order. The suit, which is joined by AFSCME/AFL-CIO as co-plaintiffs, argues that the order and the subsequent actions taken by acting director Keith Sonderling to shutter the agency are unlawful, and will cause irreparable harm if not stopped.
“The services that IMLS’s staff provides and the grants it issues are the lifeblood of the American library system,” the ALA’s April 10 filing stresses. “By reducing IMLS to a husk, Defendants have made it impossible to carry out those duties, violating Congress’s commands.”
