10 May 2025

Judge Temporarily Halts Federal Mass Layoffs

by Bonnie | | 0

Federal District Court Judge Susan Illston issued a temporary restraining order to pause until 23 May 2025 any further implementation of Donald Trump’s 11 February 2025 executive order and subsequent memos ordering federal agencies to begin mass firings and major reorganization.

During the hearing that led to her ruling, Illston said a TRO was needed “to protect the power of the legislative branch.”

Illston’s ruling said:

It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large–scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his co–equal branch and partner, the Congress. Federal courts should not micromanage the vast federal workforce, but courts must sometimes act to preserve the proper checks and balances between the three branches of government. As a group of conservative former government officials and advisors have written to the Court, “Unchecked presidential power is not what the Framers had in mind.

Her order applies to 20 federal agencies which include:

Americorps
Department of Commerce
Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of the Interior
Department of Labor
Departments of State
Department of Transportation
Department of the Treasury
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Government Efficiency, which is a subset of a White House IT team rather than a government department
Environmental Protection Agency
General Services Administration
National Labor Relations Board
National Science Foundation
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Personnel Management
Small Business Administration
Social Security Administration
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Existing reduction-in-force notices are included in her order, delaying termination for federal employees who have gotten RIF notices. Also paused are further RIF notices and putting federal employees on administrative leave.

Illston remarked that during his first term in office, Trump did pursue approval from Congress for similar restructuring plans, but has not done so in this term.

TROs are typically not appealable. Federal lawyers appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals within hours anyway.

Click here for more details.

Click here to read the ruling.

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