A federal appeals panel unanimously ruled that Kari Lake illegally fired Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz without the required independent approval. The government-efficiency project has once again encountered the laborious preliminary step of being allowed to do the thing.

The D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling and an injunction barring his removal without Broadcasting Board approval. This isn't a finding that the termination needed a nicer subject line. The administration lacked the authority to carry it out that way.

Lake previously defended the overhaul of VOA's parent agency as an effort to cut waste and restore accountability. She also strongly rejected a separate ruling that she had led the agency unlawfully.

Accountability! Wonderful principle. Everybody answers to somebody, except apparently the people restoring accountability, who require an unobstructed runway and several judges to get out of the way.

The Daily Heckler: five or six selected stories.
Political satire for your morning inbox.

A mandate is not a universal remote. You can't point an election result at every legal requirement and expect it to switch off.

The Trump administration's effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media has produced a long court fight involving Abramowitz, journalists, unions and press-freedom advocates. Tuesday's decision backs his reinstatement. He welcomed it and said he looked forward to returning to VOA's work.

That doesn't mean the agency is fully restored, everyone has been rehired or the damage has vanished. A court can tell management it broke the rules; the opinion does not itself staff a newsroom.

The Hill sought White House comment. Its report included no response.

For now, the lesson is unusually straightforward. Before firing the director, obtain the approval the law requires.

They wanted a leaner bureaucracy. They have instead created a lengthy demonstration of why the approval box was there.