Destroying the IMLS? Who? Us? In a lengthy 59-page opposition brief filed on April 21, DOJ lawyers suggested that the Trump administration is not dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency in charge of dispensing virtually all federal funding for libraries, and urged a federal court to deny a motion by the American Library Association that seeks to restore the jobs and grants summarily terminated in the wake of a March 14 Trump executive order.
Following the legal script in a similar legal action playing out in federal court in Rhode Island, DOJ lawyers argue that the ALA lacks standing to pursue their claims in federal court. As in the Rhode Island case, which was brought earlier this month by 21 state attorneys general, the DOJ argues that any action over the mass firing of IMLS staff should be heard before “administrative bodies” established by the Congress via Civil Service Reform Act, and that any disputes over canceled grants are in fact contract disputes, which should be heard before the Federal Court of Claims.
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