D.C. Judge Looks to Delay Decision on IMLS Injunction
Judge Richard J. Leon has proposed extending his temporary restraining order until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides how to handle an appeal in a similar case.
A federal judge in Washington is D.C. is poised to delay a decision on whether to issue a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides how it will dispatch with an appeal in a similar case.
The move is the latest twist in a lawsuit brought by the American Library Association that seeks to save the IMLS from being gutted by a March 14 executive order.
On May 1, Judge Richard J. Leon found that the ALA was likely to prevail in their case and issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration further dismantling the IMLS while he considers issuing a broader injunction.
But just days after Leon’s injunction, the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals came to different conclusion in a similar case, Widakuswara v. Lake. Citing that decision, Trump Administration lawyers then filed a motion for Leon to rescind his temporary restraining order in the ALA case, with DOJ lawyers insisting that the "dispositive analysis" in that appeals court decision should apply "in equal force" in the ALA case.
In Widakuswara, judge Royce C. Lamberth on April 22 issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s dismantling of United States Agency for Global Media, which, like the IMLS, was targeted in the administration's March 14 executive order. But in a split decision delivered on May 3, D.C. appeals court judges Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao—both Trump appointees—voted to stay Lamberth’s injunction, concluding that, contrary to Lamberth's finding, the government was, in fact, likely to prevail in the case.
Despite the DOJ's arguments, however, there is not yet "a dispositive analysis" in Widakuswara.
A third judge on the appeals court panel, Cornelia T.L. Pillard, an Obama appointee, issued a fiery and lengthy dissent to the panel's decision. And the D.C. Circuit court has since administratively stayed portions of the panel’s stay order, and is now considering whether to have the full appeals court rehear the appeal en banc.
In his order this week, Leon conceded that it would be “highly inefficient to rush to a decision on plaintiffs' preliminary injunction” in the ALA case before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides how it will handle the Widakuswara case, acknowledging that the issues in Widakuswara are, as DOJ lawyers have argued, “highly relevant” to the ALA case.
But rather than lift his temporary restraining order, Leon instead proposed extending the block until he can definitively rule on the ALA’s motion for a preliminary injunction, or until the case is otherwise resolved. “An extension will allow our Circuit to resolve outstanding questions relevant to this case and will therefore promote judicial economy,” Leon wrote, ordering the parties to explain their decisions should they decline to consent to the extension.
Leon’s decision to punt on issuing his own injunction in the ALA case comes as Trump Administration lawyers are appealing a sweeping injunction in a parallel case to save the IMLS filed by 21 states in federal court in Rhode Island.
In a status report this week, IMLS officials told judge John G. McConnell that the agency has begun returning IMLS employees to work and reinstating grants, even as administration lawyers are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to stay his injunction.
