A federal judge in Washington issued an order Monday that wipes out the Trump administration’s takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace, ruling that the moves violated federal law and the Constitution.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in an opinion sided with a group of ousted board members of the entity created by Congress, who filed a lawsuit after the Trump administration’s dramatic takeover in March that involved a former contractor breaking into the building.
Howell found that Trump’s removals of the board members, and the subsequent actions winding down the institute, violated the protections Congress created to keep it as an independent think tank that “carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services.”
