Trump ended funding for the Museum and Library Services Institute in an executive order on March 14th.
Federal judges have temporarily banned the Trump administration from ending institutions supporting US libraries.
Richard Leon, a senior judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled on May 1 that the administration could not terminate the Department of Museums and Library (IMLS) funds.
“The plaintiffs established that the termination of grants, loss of access to IMLS expertise and services, and loss of access to IMLS data forced libraries to close midstream, fire employees and, in some cases, fully shutters,” he wrote in the decision. “These are not just economic harm.”
Most of IMLS’ 75 staff were left to go, and contracts and grants were ended by Keith Sonderling, acting director of the agency, serving as Deputy Secretary of Labor. Leon said these measures will not continue to be taken while the lawsuit is pending.
“These harms are neither speculative nor rescuing,” the judge wrote.
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“Many libraries already contracting with performers and educators have to find other ways they can pay to support the program,” she said.
IMLS allocated more than $266 million in value last year.
In addition to the Institute, the March 14 executive order also affected the US Global Media Agency, the Minority Business Development Agency, the Federal Authority of Mediation and Mediation, the Smithsonian Institute’s Woodrow Wilson International Scholars Center, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the US Mutual Genesis Council on Homelessness.
A lawsuit has been filed to reverse the closure of US global media and other institutions. The case is in progress.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
