A federal judge in the United States ruled on Saturday that Kari Lake's appointment to head the agency that oversees Voice of America was invalid, also overturning the mass layoffs she had undertaken at the US government-funded media outlet last year.
The decision was made by Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and represents a significant blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle this historic media institution, originally created to combat Nazi propaganda.
If the decision is confirmed by the highest courts, more than 1,000 journalists and support staff of the organization could return to their jobs.
Kari Lake, who headed the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the parent institution of Voice of America, stated that she will appeal the decision.
Before the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the agency and influence editorial decision-making, Voice of America broadcast in 49 languages and had over 360 million listeners each week worldwide, providing information in countries with limited media freedoms such as China, Russia and Iran.
In his ruling, Judge Lamberth described Trump's decision to appoint Lake to head the agency without Senate confirmation and without the procedures required for an interim director as a violation of the legal and constitutional scheme.
The court found that her appointment violated the federal law on replacements in leadership positions, known as the Vacancies Act, which stipulates that an interim director must be the second-highest-ranking official of the agency, be appointed by the president with the approval of the Senate, or be a senior official who was part of the institution before the vacancy was created.
According to the judge, Kari Lake did not meet any of these conditions.
Lake argued that she had not officially assumed the title of interim director, but that the powers of the position had been delegated to her. This, she said, gave her the authority to make decisions to cut funding, terminate contracts, and mass layoffs.
The judge rejected this argument, emphasizing that allowing such a practice would enable the president to bypass the restrictions that Congress has established by law, contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.
In a public response, Kari Lake called Judge Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, an “activist judge” who she said is trying to thwart Trump’s efforts to “reduce bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste, and restore accountability to government.”
Meanwhile, Voice of America journalists and employees who sued the Trump administration expressed hope that the organization's broadcasts will return to the levels they had before March of last year, when efforts were made to shut it down.
“We feel vindicated and deeply grateful,” three of the plaintiffs, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, said in a statement, stressing that they will continue the fight to restore Voice of America’s global operations and ensure that the organization produces journalism, not propaganda.
