Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday over the unlawful termination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), reported Bloomberg Law. The museum expected to receive a $750,000 grant award towards its historic preservation program.
In March, President Trump signed the executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which called for the IMLS to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days. That order followed another that shrank seven federal agencies, including the IMLS.
According to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Woodmere “has been scrambling ever since” to complete its “America 250″ exhibition slated for next year, following the termination of its IMLS grant in April.
In 2024, Woodmere was awarded the $750,000 grant through the IMLS’ “Save America’s Treasures” program to revamp the museum’s catalog system and digitize works for an exhibition honoring the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.
Grant reimbursements are distributed quarterly, with Woodmere receiving about $195,000 of the grant so far. Staffing cuts at the IMLS, however, have stopped the agency from further servicing grants and distributing funding.
The museum had already entered into several contracts, with a goal of finishing the work by September 30. It is seeking an injunction stopping the IMLS and the Office of Management and Budget from following the March executive order that ended its grant.
In June, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the Trump administration‘s withholding of funding for the IMLS is in violation of the law. The IMLS is legally bound to support libraries and report important issues to Congress. After the president’s directives, however, the GAO, a part of Congress that monitors federal spending, found that the IMLS “ceased performing” and withheld approved funding intended to support its goal.
In the same month, a federal judge ruled against stopping the Trump administration from continuing to slash the IMLS.
A coalition of states also challenged funding cuts, with a Rhode Island federal judge issuing a preliminary injunction in May in an effort to stop the layoffs. In an August 11 court filing, however, the government said that IMLS employees were informed that reduction-in-force notices were rescinded.
The IMLS is also facing the possibility of federal defunding should the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 fiscal budget be approved by Congress, with an allocation of only $6 million that would be used to close the agency and several others at the beginning of 2026.
