Judge orders Trump administration to restore $12 million for pro-democracy Radio Free Europe
CNN
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore $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.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore $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. US 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 US Constitution must remain intact if the nation is going to continue to thrive. Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order for the US 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.
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