Judge orders administration to reinstate AmeriCorps grants in 24 states, D.C.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate programs funded by AmeriCorps grants in 24 states and the nation’s capital.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman’s order Thursday does not stop the administration’s push to place much of the agency’s workforce on administrative leave, with the intent of terminating their employment on June 24.
The vast majority of the states involved in the suit – Maryland, Delaware, California, Colorado, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and Wisconsin – are led by Democrats.
In April, the states and D.C. sued the White House, arguing that the administration’s push to dismantle AmeriCorps – a national service program – by terminating its grants for programs nationwide and by placing most of the staff on leave was unlawful.
In her ruling, Boardman, an appointee of President Joe Biden, agreed with part of the states’ arguments, saying that the Trump administration probably violated administrative procedures when it attempted to shutter the congressionally established agency by canceling grants.
But she also said the states don’t have the power to block the firings of AmeriCorps staff, noting that the states made the “assumption” that the workers would return to their jobs if the programs were reinstated – an assumption that the court did not make.
In April, billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service ordered AmeriCorps – which deployed thousands of young people nationally to work on community service projects – to terminate close to $400 million in grants, effectively firing service members at more than 1,000 other organizations.
In a statement to The Washington Post, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said AmeriCorps “failed eight consecutive audits and identified over $45 million in improper payments in 2024 alone” – criticisms the administration has made of the program since first announcing plans to dismantle it.
“President Trump has the right to restore accountability to the entire Executive Branch, and this will not be the final say on the matter,” Kelly said.
According to a November report from the agency’s inspector general’s office, AmeriCorps “has been unable to produce auditable financial statements for the last eight years.” The report said the agency had begun working on recommendations issued after previous audits and added that further recommendations remained “valid and open.”
The report, which covered the 2024 fiscal year, listed questioned costs – or costs questioned by an auditor – as $0 and made no accusations of fraud.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the Democratic governors who sued the administration over its AmeriCorps actions, said the administration violated a federal commitment to community organizations across his and other states. AmeriCorps’s programs “help communities respond to natural disasters, support seniors and veterans, and keep our trails clean across Pennsylvania,” Shapiro added in his social media post celebrating the ruling.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) also touted the court’s action, saying on X that more than “200,000 AmeriCorps staff and volunteers work hard every day to care for our communities. This ruling ensures their valuable work can continue.”
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Tobi Raji and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.w