US judge orders restoration of Voice of America, journalists back to work

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America's operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down. A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump's choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday's decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump's order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA's 1,147 employees. "Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision," Lamberth wrote. There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agenc