Judge Deborah L Boardman, :Case 1:25-cv-01363-DLB Document 148 Filed 06/05/25
AmeriCorps is the nation’s national service agency. AmeriCorps operates national service programs and funds service programs operated by states, local governments, nonprofits, and universities. For more than 20 years, AmeriCorps has placed thousands of full- and part-time volunteers in service programs in every state. These volunteers, supported by federally funded living stipends, childcare and health benefits, and education awards, work on programs that target AmeriCorps’s national service priorities such as conservation and protection of forests and public lands, public health initiatives, veterans support, and educational programs. Through AmeriCorps-funded programs, volunteers help some of the most vulnerable populations in the country, such as veterans transitioning from combat, homebound seniors, children with learning disabilities, and people struggling with substance abuse. When hurricanes, floods, and wildfires strike the states, AmeriCorps deploys volunteers to support relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts. These volunteers represent the best of us.
Throughout the month of April—National Volunteer Month—AmeriCorps made sweeping, across-the-board cuts to service programs. On April 15, 2025, the agency ordered all members of the National Civilian Community Corps—a full-time residential volunteer program for young adults serving on short-term volunteer projects nationwide—to leave their assigned posts pending their termination from the program. The next day, AmeriCorps placed 85 percent of its staff on administrative leave. In the following days, AmeriCorps reduced its workforce from more than 700 employees to 116 employees. On April 25, AmeriCorps terminated over 1,000 grants for AmeriCorps-funded programs across the country, ordered those programs closed, and forced the exit of roughly 30,000 volunteers working on the programs. The reason: “[T]he award[s] no longer effectuate[] agency priorities.” In so doing, AmeriCorps axed roughly half of its grant funding, including 80 percent of the grants awarded under its largest program, AmeriCorps State and National, which funds service projects for communities most in need.1
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia filed suit. They seek a preliminary injunction enjoining the defendants from “dismantling” AmeriCorps. For the following reasons, the preliminary injunction is granted in part and denied in part. Before AmeriCorps could make any significant changes to service delivery, it first had to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking. It did not. As a result, the States have been irreparably harmed. The balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in favor of preliminary injunctive relief.