Judge blocks Trump’s layoffs during shutdown, calling them illegal
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from laying off federal employees during… Government shutdownwhich has now extended to two weeks.
Two unions sued the Trump administration last month before the shutdown after the White House signaled a plan to lay off workers through “reductions in force” (RIFs) at federal agencies. At a hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge in the Northern District of California approved the unions’ motion for a temporary restraining order preventing the layoffs, which began on Friday.
“The activities being conducted here are contrary to the laws,” US District Judge Susan Yvonne Elston said. “You can’t do this in a country of laws.”
Elston said the Trump administration “exploited the gap in government spending and government performance to assume that all bets were off, that the rules no longer applied to them, and they could impose the structures they wanted on a government situation they didn’t like.”
Elston said she believes prosecutors can prove that the Trump administration’s actions were illegal, ultra vires and “arbitrary and capricious.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Thiemens Hedges argued that work-related harms are “recoverable” and that job loss is not “irreparable harm.”
But the judge issued a temporary restraining order, saying it would take effect immediately. She said she plans to issue the order in writing later Wednesday.
A previous report from the government stated that the administration had begun laying off at least 4,000 workers.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said Trump “seems to believe that shutting down his government distracts people from his administration’s harmful and lawless actions, but the American people are holding him accountable, including in the courts.”
The judge’s remarks “make clear that the president’s targeting of federal employees — a step straight from the 2025 Project playbook — is unlawful,” Perryman said, adding that “tampering with their livelihoods is cruel, unlawful, and poses a threat to everyone in our nation.”