Federal judge slows Voice of America return-to-work order; 70 people due back each week

Judge Royce Lamberth issued the order on Friday night, eliminating the Monday morning deadline he had set for the Trump admin to bring all affected employees back to work.

On Friday night, a federal judge eliminated a Monday deadline for all employees of the U.S. Agency for Global Media who had been placed on administrative leave by the Trump administration, which includes Voice of America employees, to return to work — putting a “phased, risk-managed approach” to the return to work in its place.

While technically denying the government’s request to stay his ruling, U.S. District Judge Rocye Lamberth — crediting a government declaration filed on March 19 that noted the claimed difficulties of bringing back all of the employees by Monday — eliminated the Monday return-to-work deadline that he had ordered on March 17.

Instead, Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, noted that David Kotz, the chief management officer at USAGM, stated in the declaration that “[USAGM] has the capacity to onboard approximately 70 employees per week” and used that to plan a path forward.

As such, Lamberth denied the Justice Department’s March 19 request to stay his ruling (which the plaintiffs opposed on Friday) but also vacated the March 23 deadline and then set an approach to bring employees back in accordance with statements in Kotz’s declaration.

Lamberth ordered that the government file the “Reconstitution Plan” on the docket by April 1 that Kotz referenced would be used to accomplish full reinstatement of employees in accordance with the agency’s capacity to do so. Additionally, Lamberth ordered the government file a status report on April 1 and every 14 days after that detailing progress toward bringing everyone back to work.

This doesn’t mean the case is over — not at all.

In addition to the stay request filed before Lamberth, DOJ filed a notice on March 19 that it was appealing Lamberth’s March 17 ruling. Early Friday afternoon, DOJ also filed a request at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a stay pending appeal and immediate administrative stay.

It was not immediately clear what would happen next, but Lamberth’s move to vacate the Monday deadline lessens the necessity for the appeals court even to consider over the weekend whether to issue an immediate administrative stay. In any event, there will likely be additional filings over the weekend at the appeals court in light of Lamberth’s Friday order.

[Update, 12:50 p.m.: On Saturday morning, DOJ filed a supplemental letter, including Judge Lamberth’s Friday night order and acknowledging that “an administrative stay is no longer required by March 23.“ The plaintiffs, meanwhile, followed that up with a request that the appeals court dismiss the appeal altogether or, alternatively, strike DOJ’s motion for a stay. In essence, the plaintiffs argue that DOJ’s whole focus was the March 23 deadline in Lamberth’s original order and, with that gone, their request is moot.]

None of that, however, likely changes DOJ’s bottom-line effort to get Lamberth’s ruling stayed pending appeal — stopping the USAGM workers from coming back — and ultimately overturned on appeal.

Although the original reports — based on earlier data — stated that more than 1,000 employees would be affected by Lamberth’s order, Kotz’s declaration detailed the current scope of what that return-to-work move would actually look like, number-wise:

Although his declaration doesn’t explain further, it is likely — during the extended time that people have been on leave — that a number of employees have left the agency for other work.

This is a breaking news report. Check back at Law Dork for the latest.