On October 8, 2020, former civil servants at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (the Agency) filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The former employees sued the Agency under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706, and further alleged that the Agency violated the First Amendment rights of the Agency's journalists. Finally, they alleged that the Agency violated 22 U.S.C. § 6204 and 22 C.F.R. 531.3, rules that are aimed at protecting the professional independence of the Agency's broadcasting networks.

Represented by private counsel, the former civil servants sought injunctive relief. They claimed that several new administrators installed by the Trump administration had breached statutory and regulatory firewalls in order to impermissibly chill the speech of the Agency's various overseas news networks. Specifically, they claimed that the Agency's newly-installed CEO and other political appointees had violated a statutorily-enshrined practice of separating business activities from the newsroom. They alleged that the CEO was coercing the Agency's broadcast networks into dropping news coverage that was seen as critical of former-President Trump. The former civil servants claimed that this coercion was accomplished by removing senior editors at the broadcasting networks, refusing to sponsor J-1 visas for foreign reporters, and meddling in newsroom meetings, among other actions.

The former civil servants filed an amended complaint on November 4, 2020. They added another claim under the Administrative Procedure Act, alleging that the Agency's rescission of 22 C.F.R. 531.3 on October 26, 2020 was arbitrary and capricious. They also added a claim that alleged the Agency had taken actions outside its statutorily delegated authority.

Judge Beryl A. Howell granted the former employee's request for a preliminary injunction on November 20, 2020. The injunction barred the Agency and the named defendants from interfering with personnel decisions, communicating with journalists, and conducting investigations into journalistic content except as provided by statute and internal procedures. 2020 WL 6822780.

The Agency appealed the injunction on December 17, 2020. The last action in the case was an order to terminate one of the plaintiffs due to their voluntary dismissal on January 21, 2021. This case is ongoing pending the appeal of the preliminary injunction.

Casey D'Alesandro - 02/11/2021


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