Appeals court rules Trump officials broke the law firing Voice of America's director
A unanimous D.C. Circuit panel says Kari Lake's agency ignored a law giving an independent board the final say. Six of its seven seats are empty.
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration broke the law when it tried to fire Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz, upholding an order that keeps him in his job.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed a permanent injunction in Abramowitz v. Lake (No. 25-5314). After a 2020 wave of firings at the agency, Congress gave an independent board, the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, the final say over hiring and firing the heads of U.S.-funded networks. "The leaders of the Agency for Global Media ignored that statute when they attempted unilaterally to fire Michael Abramowitz, the head of Voice of America," Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for the panel, joined by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Florence Pan.
According to the opinion, President Trump fired six of the board's seven members in early 2025. After a March 2025 executive order, agency leaders, including Kari Lake, then senior adviser to the acting CEO, put Abramowitz and about 1,300 other VOA employees on indefinite leave. In July 2025 they tried to reassign him to a job in Greenville, North Carolina, then removed him when he refused. Six of the seven board seats are still empty.
The Justice Department argued the case belonged before the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears federal job disputes, and that the board law cuts into the president's powers. The court rejected both arguments. The president still controls the VOA director, the panel wrote, "albeit more indirectly than defendants would like," because he can fire board members at will.
Abramowitz told Bloomberg Law he is "gratified by this result" and that his lawyers are studying next steps. The government has not said whether it will ask for further review.
The ruling is part of a pattern of courts finding that Trump officials pushed out federal workers unlawfully. For example:
- March 7, 2026: Senior Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Lake had unlawfully run VOA's parent agency and declared her actions void, including the layoffs of more than 1,000 staffers, NPR reported.
- March 17, 2026: Lamberth ordered the agency to bring 1,042 full-time VOA employees back from leave, finding Lake's efforts to dismantle the network "arbitrary and capricious," according to NPR.
- Oct. 26, 2026: Judge Jesse Furman ruled the Justice Department's firing of prosecutor Maurene Comey unlawful and ordered her reinstated with back pay, as WorkersRights.News reported.
Sources
- Abramowitz v. Lake, No. 25-5314, opinion (Nov. 10, 2026), U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Trump Official Can't Fire Voice of America Head, Court Says, Bloomberg Law
- Appeals court finds VOA director was wrongfully terminated (live updates, Nov. 10), NBC News
- U.S. judge says Kari Lake broke law in overseeing Voice of America, NPR
- Judge orders 1,000 Voice of America staffers back to work in rebuke to Kari Lake, NPR
- Judge rules Trump DOJ's firing of Maurene Comey unlawful, WorkersRights.News
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