In a lengthy, detailed and often incredulous 143-page opinion, District Court Judge Colleen McMahon found in summary judgement that the mass termination of over 1,400 National Endowment for the Humanities grants in April 2025 by DOGE “was unlawful because it was undertaken in violation of the First Amendment, in violation of the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, and without statutory authority.” Additionally, “DOGE officials lacked statutory authority to identify, select, or direct the termination of NEH grants” and “the resulting terminations were ultra vires [Latin for beyond the powers].” The two cases were brought by the Authors Guild […]
Government
Bipartisan CLEAR Act Would Require Transparency of AI Training Material
Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) have introduced a bill that would require tech companies to submit a list of the copyrighted works used to create AI products to the register of copyrights. The Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting Act or ‘‘CLEAR Act” would require companies to submit “a sufficiently detailed summary of each copyrighted work in the training dataset” 30 or more days before a generative AI product is released. The bill would also be retroactive to any products available before the bill is enacted. If a company violates the act, they would be subject to a […]
Appropriations Bills Pass With Library Funding
After dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, which was later reinstated by a federal court, President Trump signed appropriations bills this month that increase funding for libraries, American Libraries magazine reports. The legislation allocates $212.5 million—a $1.4 million increase—for “library programs run by IMLS through the Library Services and Technology Act,” according to the ALA. Though funding for the IMLS itself decreased slightly, due to the reduction in staffing there. Funding for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program, which is run predominantly through school libraries, was flat at $30 million. The office that administers the program was […]
IMLS Reinstates Grants
After a federal judge overturned the dissolution of the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, the agency has reinstated all of their federal grants. “This action supersedes any prior notices which may have been received related to grant termination,” according to a notice on their website. “Grantees should access the agency’s electronic grants management system for further information.” “Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states,” American Library Association president Sam Helmick said in a statement. “Every public, school and academic library and their patrons benefit from the research findings and program […]
Publisher Condemns Hegseth’s Children’s Book Appropriation
Kids Can Press, the Canadian children’s publisher of the Franklin the Turtle series, responded to a social media post from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that depicted the turtle shooting at drug boats. On Sunday, Hegseth posted an image on his personal X account that appropriates the popular Franklin the Turtle book series by Paulette Bourgeois. Hegseth’s image looks like the cover of “A Classic Franklin Story” with the title “Franklin the Turtle Targets Narco Terrorists” and an illustrated image of Franklin shooting at boats with a bazooka. The post has the caption, “For your Christmas wish list…” On Monday, […]
Federal Court Protects IMLS
On Friday, a Federal Court issued a permanent injunction halting the destruction of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The ruling by United States District Court chief judge John J. McConnell, Jr. immediately nullifies all actions that the Trump Administration took to dismantle the agency, and blocks them from being imposed in the future. Twenty-one states filed a lawsuit against the president for his efforts to eliminate the IMLS and as well as the Minority Business Development Agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. In March, an executive order withheld appropriated funds […]