Rhode Island Judge Declines to Stay His IMLS Injunction

In a June 5 decision, federal judge John G. McConnell denied a Trump administration motion to stay his preliminary injunction blocking the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services pending an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The decision comes after McConnell on May 6 found in favor of 21 plaintiff states alleging that Trump's March 14 executive order to dismantle the IMLS and several other agencies was illegal, and a subsequent May 13 preliminary injunction that ordered IMLS employees back to work and the fulfillment of previously awarded grants in the plaintiff states.

On May 19, however, the DOJ filed a motion for a stay pending the outcome of its appeal, arguing that the injunction was overly burdensome because it required the administration to “reinstate personnel against their judgment, expend non-statutorily required resources, and restart non-statutorily required programs that are directly contrary to the Agency Defendants’ preferred policies.”

But after a round of briefs from both sides, McConnell easily rejected the DOJ's arguments for a stay, holding that the preliminary injunction was narrowly tailored to undo the agency's "unlawful actions," and that nothing in the order stops agency officials from taking "lawful steps" to manage the agency, including to make personnel decision not "related to or motivated" by Trump's March 14 executive order.

"Defendants assert irreparable harm by claiming that the preliminary injunction prevents them from spending taxpayer money in accordance with Congress's statutory mandate, but this court found that the agencies 'flouted their statutory mandates' and, because of the actions challenged in this lawsuit, were left, unable to expend the funds Congress appropriated to them," McConnell concluded. "As a result, Defendants were usurping (1) Congress's power of the purse by disregarding the congressional appropriations and (2) vested legislative authority to create and abolish federal agencies. The preliminary junction aimed to narrowly undo these unlawful actions."

Although there remains a chance the First Circuit could agree to stay the injunction at some point, McConnell's decision affords IMLS employees and grantees in the plaintiff states a little peace of mind, at least for now. In a May 20 status report, IMLS leaders said it had begun a staggered return to work for agency employees and was "diligently working toward reinstating 755 grants in the Plaintiff States" and "eight terminated contracts across six contractors in Plaintiff States."

Meanwhile, another district court judge, Richard J. Leon in Washington D.C., has yet to issue an injunction in a parallel case filed by the American Library Association, now more than a month after ruling in the ALA's favor, and a week after his initial temporary restraining order expired on May 29.

Lawyers for the ALA this week filed a motion asking Leon to issue a new temporary restraining order, or to swiftly issue a preliminary injunction that would provide relief to IMLS grantees outside of the plaintiff states.