At the first hearing in ALA v. Sonderling, held April 30 at the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees pushed for the court to put an immediate halt to the ongoing gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services before the majority of its staff is laid off this weekend.

The ALA and AFSCME hope to block the implementation of a White House executive order that has hollowed out the IMLS, reduced staffing to a minimum, and imposed delays and outright terminations on the agency’s statutory and discretionary grants. In a brief filed April 28, the organizations argued that the defendants, including IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling, have made "arbitrary" and "unconstitutional" changes at the agency. The defendants contend they must comply with the EO to fulfill "the President's priorities."

Attorneys for the plaintiffs asked judge Richard J. Leon to convert the ALA and AFSCME’s motion for a preliminary injunction to a motion for an emergency restraining order, a request Leon granted. With 85% of IMLS staffers currently on administrative leave and awaiting a termination date of May 4, such an order, if issued by the court, would pause the reduction in force preserve IMLS while this case and a parallel IMLS-related lawsuit, Rhode Island v. Trump, are decided.

"We urge the court to immediately enjoin the Administration from further damaging the nation’s libraries,” ALA president Cindy Hohl, who attended the hearing with ALA staff, told PW, emphasizing the critical nature of this decision. “With each passing day, the Trump administration is causing further harm to libraries across the country, and the millions of Americans who rely on libraries, as it continues to illegally dismantle IMLS,” she added. “State libraries, some of which are laying off staff and discontinuing statewide services such as interlibrary loans, are preparing for more cuts. IMLS competitive grant projects have been shut down, some in the middle of new programs that libraries and patrons depend on.”

The hearing comes at a tipping point for the IMLS. Only 12 employees presently remain at the agency, and none previously managed the payment processing essential to disbursing awarded grants. Because furloughed IMLS staffers have been unable to obtain a full retention register from the IMLS’s human resources department, they are uncertain whether a reduction in force—and any opportunity to reapply for vacant positions—will be carried out according to federal protocols.

Several IMLS staffers have already been fired. On April 18, an unknown number of non-union employees were involuntarily terminated, more than two weeks in advance of the announced May 4 RIF date.

In the meantime, some state librarians and library associations tell PW that their statutory IMLS Grants to States are being fulfilled. Although the executive branch has announced the cancelation of congressionally mandated grants to California, Connecticut, and Washington—a move whose legality remains in question. Some states report receiving partial payments. “Texas State Library and Archives Commission got notice [in mid-April] that the remainder of Texas’s FY24 funds would be disbursed, which was great news,” Wendy Woodland, director of advocacy and communications for the Texas Library Association, told PW.

Josh Worman, public libraries section president for the Vermont Library Association, informed PW that the Vermont Department of Libraries “received a notice from the IMLS of a grant award equaling half of the total that had been allotted in 2024.” Vermont state librarian Catherine Delneo hopes the library system “will eventually receive a full allotment for 2025, similar to the $1.24 million that they received in 2024.”

Nan Carmack, interim executive director of the Virginia Library Association, said, “Virginia has gotten their third draw down and has been notified that they will be getting their fourth quarter draw down as well,” with IMLS fulfilling its FY24 agreement. “So, in Virginia, so far so good," Carmack added. "Obviously, no one knows what will happen beyond that.”

This article has been updated with additional information.