Judge orders Trump administration to restore US$12M for pro-democracy Radio Free Europe

Journalists work in a newsroom of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's local branch, called Radio Azattyk, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on April 28, 2023. (Vladimir Voronin / AP Photo)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore US$12 million that Congress appropriated for Radio Free Europe, a pro-democracy media outlet at risk of going dark for the first time in 75 years.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also tucked a lesson on the three branches of government inside Tuesday’s ruling, cautioning that the system of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution must remain intact if the nation is going to continue to thrive.

Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order for the U.S. Agency for Global Media to disburse money for April 2025 for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to keep the station on the air. He said the Trump administration could not unilaterally revoke funding approved by Congress.

“In interviews, podcasts, and op-eds, people from both inside and outside government have variously accused the courts -- myself included -- of fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the Presidency, undercutting the popular will, or dictating how Executive agencies can and should be run,” wrote Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Those notions reflect a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the role of the federal judiciary and of the Constitution itself, he said.

“Reasonable people can reach different conclusions in complicated legal disputes such as this,” Lamberth wrote, and that’s why the appellate courts exist. The administration could also ask Congress to pull back the funds, he noted.

Attorneys for the media outlet say President Donald Trump’s administration has terminated nearly all of its contracts with freelance journalists, missed payments on leases and furloughed 122 employees. They warn that more employees will be furloughed and more contracts will be canceled on May 1 if funding isn’t restored.

“By the end of May, RFE/RL will be forced to cancel the contracts supporting its core live news broadcasting and reporting operations. In June 2025, RFE/RL will almost entirely cease its operations,” plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.

Government attorneys argued that the judge doesn’t have jurisdiction over what amounts to a contract dispute that belongs in the Court of Federal Claims.

“Plaintiff seeks to place this Court as the arbiter of the grant agreement terms between the parties. But doing so would put the Court in an improper policymaking role,” they wrote.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty started broadcasting during the Cold War. Its programs are aired in 27 languages in 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. Its corporate headquarters are in Washington; its journalistic headquarters are based in the Czech Republic.

The Trump administration has tried to make deep cuts at other government-operated, pro-democracy media outlets, including Voice of America.

On April 22, however, Lamberth agreed to block the administration from dismantling Voice of America. The judge ruled that the administration illegally required Voice of America to cease operations for the first time since its World War II-era inception.

Congress makes the laws, but they must be signed by the president to take effect, Lamberth wrote in Tuesday’s ruling, and that’s exactly what happened in March when Trump signed the continuing resolution that allocated the grant funding to the government-operated media outlets.

Federal judges take an oath to render their decisions impartially, and Lamberth said he doesn’t have a stake in the outcome of this case. He also said he doesn’t have any animosity toward the president nor loyalty to the media outlets.

But the role of the courts is to interpret the laws of the Constitution and declare what the law is, he said -- and unlike the executive branch, the courts have no means to independently enforce those laws.

By issuing the ruling, “I am humbly fulfilling my small part in this very constitutional paradigm -- a framework that has propelled the United States to heights of greatness, liberty and prosperity unparalleled in the history of the world for nearly 250 years,” Lamberth wrote. “If our nation is to thrive for another 250 years, each co-equal branch of government must be willing to courageously exert the authority entrusted to it by our Founders.”

Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Rebecca Boone contributed to this story.