A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal employees amid the government shutdown, for now.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, an appointee of former President Clinton, sided with government employee unions in temporarily barring the administration from carrying out the reductions in force (RIFs) that were expected to impact more than 4,000 workers.
At a hearing Wednesday, Illston said before arguments even began that she believed the plaintiffs would ultimately prevail in demonstrating that the administration’s efforts, which appear to be “politically motivated,” are illegal and exceed its authority.
“The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, and the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume that that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore and that they can impose the structures that they like on a government situation that they don’t like,” Illston said.
Her order directs the Trump administration not to issue any new RIF notices or take any steps to implement the notices issued Friday or later against employees who are represented by the unions that sued. It further directs the government to provide her with an exact count of actual or imminent layoffs by Friday.
The unions sued just before the shutdown began, contending the Trump administration’s plan to implement permanent firings instead of temporary furloughs with later back pay is unlawful.
They alleged the OMB’s suggestion in a memo last month for agencies to “use this opportunity” to consider layoffs for programs with lapsed funding that do not align with Trump’s priorities misunderstands the law governing shutdowns.
Danielle Leonard, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, pointed to past comments by OMB Director Russell Vought that endorsed leaving career civil servants “traumatically affected” by their jobs, as proof of the harm the administration sought to impose with the layoffs.
“That’s exactly what they are doing: trauma,” Leonard said. “The emotional distress of being told you are being fired after an already exceptionally difficult year for federal employees.”
“In this context, it is traumatic; it is distressing,” she added.
As of Tuesday evening, eight departments planned to lay off workers, though the numbers continue to evolve.
