Two legal challenges advanced on Thursday against the Trump administration's cuts to U.S. cultural agencies. A coalition of academic groups—the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association—filed a lawsuit to stop the "illegal dismantling" of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which in April announced a 70–80 percent staff reduction and cancellation of over 1,000 grants. Separately, a federal judge issued an emergency order temporarily blocking similar cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, after the Department of Government Efficiency placed its 75-person staff on leave and the American Libraries Association brought suit.
These legal actions matter because they challenge the administration's authority to drastically reduce or eliminate federal agencies that fund humanities research, libraries, and museums across all 50 states. The NEH has awarded over $6 billion since 1956, and the IMLS has distributed hundreds of millions annually. The lawsuits argue the cuts violate the constitutional separation of powers and the Impoundment Control Act, and the judge in the IMLS case warned of permanent harms including shuttered libraries and lost jobs. The outcome could set a precedent for the future of federal arts and humanities funding.