A District Court in Maryland has granted a preliminary injunction and ordered that the Trump administration must restore AmeriCorps funding to a broad coalition that sued over illegal cuts to grants. The lawsuit was filed by AmeriCorps grantees, sponsors, and service members including Democracy Maine, a collaboration of the League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote.
“This ruling is a crucial victory for Mainers, for the rule of law, and for the principle of public service,” said Anna Kellar, Executive Director of Democracy Maine. “This injunction is a win in a continuing litigation process that underscores the importance of the civic education work that is central to our mission.”
Democracy Maine filed suit in May with a broad coalition of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations in federal court after being stripped of an AmeriCorps planning grant. Democracy Maine is one of several plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit to fight the unlawful blanket termination of AmeriCorps grants.
Democracy Maine was awarded a one-year grant from the federal government to develop civic education and engagement programs focused on rural counties where young people are especially disconnected from their communities and their government.
AmeriCorps is the federal agency for volunteer service, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding for necessary state and community service projects. AmeriCorps members serve communities in all fifty states, US territories, and DC. Their programs provide a variety of necessary opportunities, including education access, housing support, youth mentorship, elder care, and land conservation. Dismantling the nation’s flagship civil service program, which has existed for 60 years, will directly harm some of our most vulnerable communities across Maine.
Democracy Maine works to make government more equitable, inclusive, and accessible by increasing civic engagement, especially for young people in rural areas of the state. Democracy Maine is a collaboration between three nonpartisan organizations — League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote.
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