A federal judge in the United States has invalidated the mass firings at the Voice of America that were carried out in 2025 by Kari Lake, a Trump administration appointee.

“A federal judge on Saturday ruled that the appointment of Kari Lake, the head of Voice of America’s oversight agency, was invalid, voiding mass layoffs that she had carried out at the federally funded news group last year,” according to The New York Times.

“The decision from Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was a major rejection of President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the storied government-funded news group, which was founded to combat Nazi propaganda.”

The ruling provides a potential pathway for salvaging the Voice of America and allowing it to resume its news and information reporting. The Voice of America has long been considered a key news media platform and a key “soft power” instrument of U.S. foreign policy.

The New York Times reports: “If upheld by higher courts, Judge Lamberth’s ruling would allow more than 1,000 journalists and support staff members at the news group to return to their jobs. Ms. Lake, who had been leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media, V.O.A.’s parent agency, said that she would appeal the decision.”

“Before Mr. Trump pushed to close the agency and influence its editorial decisions, Voice of America broadcast in 49 languages and had more than 360 million weekly listeners around the world, providing news services to foreign countries with limited press freedoms, such as China, Russia and Iran. …”

The judicial ruling assesses the case in relationship to presidential appointment powers and Senate confirmation powers

Judge Lamberth “found that Ms. Lake’s appointment violated the law that determines who can serve as an acting head of an agency whose permanent leader would require Senate confirmation. The law, the Vacancies Act, requires that an acting head must be the second senior officer of an agency, be appointed by the president with the Senate’s consent or be a senior officer who had been at the agency before a vacancy arose,” according to The New York Times. “Judge Lamberth found that Ms. Lake did not satisfy those conditions.”

If this judicial ruling is upheld, the Voice of America may find a second life.

The New York Times reports on the federal judicial ruling on the Voice of America. The Atlantic Council reported on the cuts to the Voice of America in March 2025.