Trump administration must restore AmeriCorps programs in 24 states, judge rules

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to restore programs funded by AmeriCorps grants in 24 Democratic-led states but declined to bar the federal agency for national service and volunteering from cutting the bulk of its workforce.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Baltimore issued an injunction at the behest of those states and the District of Columbia who argued Republican President Donald Trump's administration is unlawfully dismantling AmeriCorps.

Those states sued in April after the administration terminated over 1,000 grants for AmeriCorps-funded programs nationally and placed 85% of its staff on administrative leave with the intent to terminate them effective June 24.

Democratic state attorneys general argued Trump lacks the authority under the U.S. Constitution to gut AmeriCorps, which was created by Congress, and that the agency failed to follow proper procedures before altering program services.

Boardman, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, partially agreed, saying that before AmeriCorps could make any significant changes to the delivery of services to the state, it needed to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking.

"It did not," she wrote. "As a result, the states have been irreparably harmed."

But she said the states lacked standing to block the mass job cuts at AmeriCorps, saying their arguments were premised on an "unfounded assumption" that the employees if reinstated would return seamlessly to their prior functions.

While the states argued that the job cuts will hinder the delivery of services to their communities and review of the states' applications for grants from the agency, the judge said those potential impacts of the firings were too speculative.

AmeriCorps and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in BostonEditing by Bill Berkrot)