As Trump threatens to eliminate government-funded arts and culture agencies in a newly released budget proposal, a federal judge has temporarily halted the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on Thursday, May 1, after a series of cuts to IMLS grants and staff intended to dismantle the agency.
The ruling responds to a lawsuit filed last month by the American Library Association (ALA) and the union group American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO), which alleges that the Trump administration cannot dismantle the agency without congressional approval and that doing so would cause “irreparable harm.”
The library advocacy nonprofit, which receives $2.46 million in IMLS grants annually, said it could be forced to abandon some of its public programs as a result of cuts to the federal agency.
United States District Judge Richard J. Leon, who was appointed by George W. Bush, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Trump, the IMLS, the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), and the US Office of Management and Budget from further slashing grants or placing staff on leave pending further deliberations.
“This decision is a step forward — but the fight is far from over,” ALA President Cindy Hohl told Hyperallergic in a statement. “We now need Congress to fully fund IMLS in the next federal budget.”
Following a Trump executive order issued in March calling the IMLS “unnecessary,” the administration appointed Keith Sonderling, who also serves as the US Department of Labor’s Deputy Secretary and has no known relevant museum or library experience, to lead the agency. Under his leadership, up to the entire 77-person agency staff was placed on administrative leave, according to the union representing IMLS employees, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3403.
According to the ALA lawsuit, Sonderling also fired the entire 23-person IMLS board. Some employees, including five lawyers and a human resources specialist, were later reinstated, the lawsuit said.
Leon said in his ruling that the Trump administration’s conduct undermined nearly $300 million in congressional appropriations. He also found that “wholesale termination of grants and services and the mass layoffs” appear to violate parts of the Museum and Library Service Act of 2003, which outlines responsibilities of the IMLS director. According to the law, the IMLS director should possess “special competence with regard to library and information services” and regularly conduct research in the field.
The judge, who was asked to rule before May 4, before the IMLS is expected to make a round of “mass termination” of staff, found that further dismantling the IMLS could cause “irreparable injury,” citing grant terminations that have already caused libraries to end programs “midstream.”
AFGE Local 3403 estimated last month that well over 1,000 grants intended for libraries and museums had been canceled. According to the lawsuit, a library in Mississippi was forced to suspend an app providing digital access to library materials the day after its funding was suspended.
The temporary restraining order came one day before the Trump administration sent its 2026 budget proposal to the Senate on Friday, May 2. In the proposal, the administration advances the complete defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, IMLS, and other small agencies, including AmeriCorps and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
It is unclear what jurisdiction Leon’s restraining order has on the administration’s request for complete defunding of the IMLS.
“Even if we save IMLS, the agency needs funding to operate,” Hohl said. “The budget proposal released by the White House today would eliminate the IMLS in Fiscal Year 2026.”
Hohl described the current situation as a “five-alarm fire.”
“ALA is calling on every library supporter to urge their Senators and House Representatives to sign the FY 2026 ‘Dear Appropriator’ letters in support of federal library funding,” she said.
The IMLS and AFL-CIO have not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.