President Trump has been ordered to temporarily halt his efforts to shut down the Voice of America and rehire “hundreds of VOA workers and contractors,” according to Bloomberg News.

The judge is Royce C. Lamberth from DC, who granted a preliminary injunction last month against the administration.

Here’s more:

The Trump administration must temporarily roll back its efforts to shutter the Voice of America, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the government to restore the employment of hundreds of VOA workers and contractors, granting preliminary injunctions in two cases challenging the constitutionality of the administration’s efforts to close the news outlet.

VOA Director Michael Abramowitz and two VOA journalists sued the administration over actions it took last month to shutter the organization, following President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order directing agency officials to eliminate, “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” entities including the US Agency for Global Media. VOA is one of several global media outlets within USAGM.

Placing on administrative leave or terminating all VOA employees, freezing the organization’s congressionally appropriated funds, and effectively “forcing VOA to go dark” violate “myriad acts of Congress,” Abramowitz asserted in a motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. The actions have forced VOA reporting to come to a halt, preventing the outlet from carrying out its statutory obligations to produce and broadcast news globally, the plaintiffs alleged.

Some VOA journalists facing imminent termination also hold visas that are tied to their employment, meaning they’ll lose their legal status and may be forced to return to countries “where they face persecution, imprisonment, or worse.” The sudden terminations of employees and contracts with content providers “built over decades that are central to VOA’s credibility and global reach” are also causing VOA, its journalists, and its global audience irreparable harm, the plaintiffs argued.

Morales and Lake in a filing opposing the Abramowitz preliminary injunction request accused the plaintiffs of bringing a “scattershot attack” against the president’s authority and said that their claims are “nothing more than employment actions cloaked as administrative procedure or constitutional challenges” that will ultimately fail. Their alleged anticipated injuries are also too “speculative” to establish the irreparable harm that warrants injunctive relief, the government argued.

USAGM also argued the court lacks authority to grant the requested relief to cancel contract terminations since claims arising under the terms of those agreements are subject to the jurisdiction of the US Court of Federal Claims. The agency in a motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order in Widakuswara pointed to the US Supreme Court’s April 4 ruling in Department of Education v. California, in which the court struck down a Massachusetts federal judge’s temporary order barring the Education Department from canceling grants for teacher training programs. The administration is likely to show that the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the claims since they stem from government contracts, the high court said.

I expect this decision will be appealed and Trump to win eventually, even if it has to go all the way up to the Supreme Court.