On September 3, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and a coalition of library, museum, and cultural organizations filed an amicus brief in Rhode Island v. Trump, stating their solidarity with the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Twenty-one states’ attorneys general filed the case on April 4, and as of May 13, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court of the District of Rhode Island had ordered a halt to the gutting of IMLS and two other federal agencies.

The American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Association for Rural and Small Libraries, Urban Libraries Council, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums all signed on as friends of the court. Eight associations of museum, zoo, and education missions were also among the signatories.

The organizations and union ask the court to uphold its injunction and remedy the damage done to IMLS. They write that IMLS “was designed by Congress to be the connective tissue of America’s library and cultural institutions” and that “its legacy of effective grantmaking” and statutory mandate remain in jeopardy. They fear that the defendants could go on “eviscerating the agency during the pendency of this litigation,” and that cultural institutions reliant on IMLS “will be forced to reduce and discontinue services.” Their brief echoes the plaintiffs’ August 25 motion for summary judgment.

AFSCME president Lee Saunders emphasized the importance of IMLS to cultural institutions. “Today, we urge the court to continue to protect federal support for museums and libraries from anti-worker billionaires who are trying to rob our communities of the services we depend on,” Saunders said in a press statement, noting that attacks on federal agencies such as IMLS are “attempts to deprive us of our history, our resources, and our freedom to learn.”

Saunders noted that U.S. libraries and museums “educate the next generation, help workers access job training, and provide a safe space where anyone can learn.” Through its Cultural Workers United movement, AFSCME has made a push to bring library and museum workers on board, and recently announced a milestone of 50,000 members from literary, arts, and other organizations.

Unionized IMLS workers belong to the American Federation of Government Employees, although not all IMLS positions qualify for union membership. When IMLS staffers were put on paid administrative leave, non-union IMLS employees were among those to be fired from the agency. Since March, the Trump administration has been acting to ban collective bargaining within federal agencies, filing executive orders that eliminate federal labor-management programs and leave workers vulnerable.