A federal court has granted a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s firings of federal employees during the government shutdown.
The ruling by Judge Susan Illston of the US district court’s northern district of California came in response to a lawsuit filed by labor unions representing federal workers.
“I am inclined to grant the plaintiff’s motion,” said Illston during a court hearing on the injunction request. “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 all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them any more, and that they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don’t like, and I find, I believe, that the plaintiffs will demonstrate, ultimately, that what’s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”
Justice department attorney Elizabeth Hedges said she was not prepared to discuss the merits of the case.
“As of now, the [temporary restraining order] is in effect,” Illston said.
The ruling comes as Russ Vought, the White House OMB director, said on The Charlie Kirk Show that more cuts were coming, claiming the firings could be “north of 10,000” workers.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced “reductions in force” across seven federal agencies, with at least 4,100 workers affected, citing the shutdown as justification for the firings.
Unions representing federal employees – the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) – filed a lawsuit on 30 September, before the shutdown, in response to threats from the Trump administration that it would conduct reductions in force.
The lawsuit alleges that the OMB, through Vought, violated the law by making firing threats and instructing federal employees to carry out work related to the firings during the shutdown.
The unions filed for an injunction to block the firings. No prior government shutdown has resulted in mass layoffs of federal workers before.
“In [the] AFGE’s 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations – including during Trump’s first term – no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown,” said Everett Kelley, president of the AFGE, in a statement on the firings.
“The AFGE is currently challenging President Trump’s illegal, unprecedented abuse of power and we will not stop fighting until every reduction-in-force notice is rescinded.”
