Hearing Set in Lawsuit to Block Trump’s Destruction of IMLS
DOJ Lawyers will argue their case to shutter the IMLS before a judge that has already once blocked a sweeping attempt by the Trump administration to gut federal funding.
A federal judge in Rhode Island has set a hearing date in a lawsuit filed by 21 states seeking to block the Trump administration’s destruction of the IMLS (Institute for Museum and Library Services).
In a brief order issued on April 10, Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. set Friday, April 18 at 10 a.m. to hear arguments on the motion. Furthermore, the court set a deadline of Monday, April 14 for the Trump administration to respond to the states' motion, and gave the plaintiff states an April 16 deadline for their reply brief.
The high stakes hearing comes after a coalition of 21 state attorneys on April 4 filed an emergency action in federal court in Rhode Island seeking to block the Trump administration’s bid to shutter the Institute of Museum and Library Services as well as six other agencies as outlined in a March 14 executive order.
The seven-count complaint argues that the administration’s “Closure Order” and the actions it has since taken to implement the order, including the firing of 85% of IMLS staff, are illegal.
“President Trump is leading a campaign to dismantle vast swaths of the federal government,” alleges the suit, led by attorney generals Peter Neronha (Rhode Island), Letitia James (New York), and Anne Lopez (Hawaii). “But whatever the President’s policy preferences, he cannot override the congressional enactments that authorize federal agencies, appropriate funds for them to administer, and define how they must operate.”
Notably, McConnell, an Obama appointee, has already issued one injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s attempt to freeze as much as $3 trillion in federal funding for programs that may not comply with the administration’s ideology.
“The Executive’s statement that the Executive Branch has a duty ‘to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,’ is a constitutionally flawed statement,” McConnell wrote in his January 31 opinion. “The Executive Branch has a duty to align federal spending and action with the will of the people as expressed through congressional appropriations, not through ‘Presidential priorities.’”
Meanwhile, on February 10, McConnell issued another order to enforce his injunction after finding that the Trump administration had defied his initial order to lift the freeze on funding.
On March 26, the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump Administration’s bid to stay McConnell’s injunction while injunction is appealed.
