SAVING VOICE OF AMERICA

THE IMPACT

The power to create, regulate, and restructure federal agencies is a constitutional authority vested in Congress – and a crucial safeguard in our government’s system of checks and balances. It is unconstitutional for the President to unilaterally dismantle a federally codified and funded agency through an executive order, and if left unchecked, this presidential overreach will continue.

THE BRIEF

The Trump administration is on a mission to destroy Voice of America – the celebrated, editorially independent broadcaster that has helped the U.S. advance truth and counter authoritarianism around the globe for more than 75 years.  In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that would effectively dissolve VOA, despite Congress budgeting more than $260 million for VOA in 2024 and continuing at that level in 2025 budget resolutions.

We asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the unconstitutional destruction of V.O.A. on behalf of more than 50 former senior military and foreign policy leaders. In their view, VOA has helped “achieve some of our nation’s most important foreign policy goals.” Our brief argues that V.O.A. reflects Congress’s role in foreign policy, and President Trump cannot “dismantle V.O.A. or disregard Congress’s allocation of funds to V.O.A. by executive fiat.”

THE TEAM

The former senior military and foreign policy leaders are represented pro bono by Free + Fair.