Judge Upholds Block on Trump Admin’s Shutdown of US Institute of Peace

The court rejects the administration’s request for a stay, finding that the U.S. Institute of Peace is not under executive control.

The U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Jan. 27, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to pause her earlier ruling that restored control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) to its acting president and board, blocking further attempts by the administration to dismantle the organization and install new leadership.

In a seven-page decision issued on May 23, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the government had failed to meet any of the four legal requirements for a stay, including showing a likelihood of success on appeal or proof of irreparable harm. She described the administration’s legal theory as fundamentally flawed and reaffirmed her earlier conclusion that USIP is not part of the executive branch—and thus beyond the president’s constitutional removal authority.

“While USIP may be considered part of the federal government,” Howell wrote, “USIP does not exercise executive power and thus is not part of the Executive branch, so the President does not have absolute constitutional removal authority over USIP Board members but must comply with the statute in exercising his removal power.”

The judge was responding to the Trump administration’s request for a stay of her May 19 ruling, which found that Trump’s effort to fire USIP’s board and acting president, former ambassador George Moose, was both unlawful and unconstitutional. The ruling also invalidated all subsequent actions taken by administration officials, including the shutdown of USIP programs, the firing of most staff, and the transfer of the agency’s headquarters to the General Services Administration.

In its May 21 request for a stay of the judge’s ruling, Trump administration attorneys claimed that the court was mistaken in finding that USIP is not part of the executive branch, arguing that, “the judiciary cannot invent a fourth branch” of government within which to place the institute for purposes of its legal reasoning, “otherwise, we risk the very tyranny the Founding Fathers sought so ingeniously to avoid.”

Government attorneys also argued that even if USIP occupies a unique status, its directors are still presidential appointees who can be removed at will under the president’s Article II powers.

In court filings opposing a temporary restraining order earlier in the case, administration lawyers cited former President Ronald Reagan’s signing statement that established USIP, in which he stated that the statute relating to removal of the institute’s board members “is neither intended to, nor has the effect of, restricting the President’s constitutional power” to fire them. They also argued that Congress cannot limit the president’s authority over officials who do not exercise quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial functions, which USIP’s functions do not fall into.

Howell rejected that position, saying that USIP does not wield executive power and therefore falls outside the reach of the president’s unrestricted removal authority. In her May 19 ruling—which she upheld on Friday—Howell wrote that Congress had explicitly structured the institute to operate independently, with protections against unilateral executive interference. Howell described the administration’s conduct as a “gross usurpation of power” carried out “by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers,” and said the attempt to dismantle the institute had “unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better.”

Howell also found that the government had failed to show it would suffer harm without a stay. By contrast, she wrote, continued disruption to USIP would make it “that much harder” for its restored leadership to undertake “the job of putting [USIP] back together by rehiring employees and stemming the dissipation of USIP’s goodwill and reputation for independence.”

USIP’s acting president reentered the institute’s headquarters on May 21, accompanied by the organization’s outside counsel, George Foote. The administration had requested an emergency two-business-day stay to allow time for appeal, and Howell denied that request as well.

The legal fight began after Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 19 declaring USIP “unnecessary” and directing that its activities be eliminated “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

On March 14, White House officials fired the Senate-confirmed board members via email. That same day, Moose was removed by the remaining ex officio members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and replaced with Kenneth Jackson, an official from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Two days later, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel, along with Jackson, entered USIP’s headquarters with police escort, and nearly all of USIP’s staff were subsequently terminated.

In a March 17 post on social media platform X, DOGE stated that Moose allegedly “denied lawful access [by] Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President (as approved by the USIP Board),” to the building. Officers with the DC Metropolitan Police Department later “arrived onsite and escorted Mr. Jackson into the building,” according to DOGE.

The building was later transferred to the General Services Administration and leased to the Department of Labor.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the court’s May 23 ruling.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.