- About 4,100 workers have been notified of layoffs during the shutdown.
- Two unions representing government employees filed suit.
- Judge says explicit political motivation is not allowed under the law.
A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to halt mass layoffs of federal workers during a partial government shutdown while ruling out claims by unions that the cuts are illegal.
At a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a request by two unions to block layoffs at more than 30 federal agencies while the case moves forward.
The decision is likely to be appealed quickly, but it offers a reprieve for federal workers facing nearly years of pressure from the Trump administration to cut their ranks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House said last week it had begun significant layoffs across the U.S. government as Trump followed through on a threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown, now in its 15th day. In an order Wednesday, Trump extended an existing freeze on hiring new federal workers, with exceptions for military personnel and appointees to political roles.
About 4,100 workers at eight agencies have been notified they have been furloughed so far, according to a Tuesday filing by the administration.
Illston’s decision came shortly after White House Budget Director Russell Vought said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that more than 10,000 federal workers could lose their jobs because of the shutdown.
Illston cited during the hearing a series of public statements by Trump and Vought that she said showed explicit political motivations for the firings, such as Trump saying cuts would target “Democratic agencies.”
“You can’t do that in a nation of laws. And we have laws here, and the things that are being formulated here are not within the law,” said Illston, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
Judge demands details of firings
Democracy Forward, a legal group representing the unions, said Illston made it clear that the president’s targeting of federal workers was illegal.
“Our public servants do the people’s work, and gambling with their livelihood is cruel and illegal and a threat to everyone in our nation,” Skye Perryman, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Illston ordered the administration to provide by Friday a statement of any “actual or impending” layoffs and to outline the steps agencies are taking to comply with her ruling.
A U.S. Department of Justice attorney, Elizabeth Hedges, said at the hearing that she was not prepared to address Illston’s concerns about the legality of the firings. She argued instead that the unions must bring their claims to a federal labor board before they can sue them in court.
Illston disagreed, chastising the Justice Department for refusing to rule on the unions’ legal claims.
“The ax is coming down on the heads of employees across the country and you’re not even prepared to decide whether it’s legal,” she said.
The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees argue that implementing layoffs is not an essential service that can be performed during a loss of government aid and that the shutdown does not justify mass layoffs because most federal workers have been laid off without pay.
Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress, but need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate, where Democrats are holding out for an extension of health insurance subsidies. Democrats have said they will not follow Trump’s presidential tactics, and a renewed effort to pass a spending bill failed Wednesday.
