A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily halted the Trump administration from terminating federal employees during the current government shutdown.
The temporary restraining order was issued five days following the administration’s notification of redundancies affecting over 4,000 federal workers.
This order prevents the Trump administration from proceeding with the termination of these workers, or issuing RIFs to additional federal personnel who are represented by two unions that initiated a lawsuit to halt the dismissals.
“The actions being taken here are against the law,” U.S. District Court Judge Susan Yvonne Illston remarked to the administration’s lawyers during a hearing on Wednesday where she granted the TRO.
“You cannot conduct yourself this way in a legal nation,” Illston elaborated, as reported by NBC News. “We have established laws, and the actions discussed here are not lawful.”
The judge referenced remarks made by President Donald Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought, suggesting that the layoffs were aimed at specifically targeting programs supported by Democrats.
In a written order released later on Wednesday, Illston characterized the dismissals during a shutdown as “unprecedented.”
“It is also unusual for an administration to dismiss front-line civilian workers during a
government shutdown as a tactic to penalize the opposing political party,” Illston stated.
“Yet this is exactly what President Trump has declared he is doing, posting on social media on the second day of the shutdown: ‘I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to decide which of the numerous Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he suggests to be cut, and whether those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats have given me this extraordinary opportunity.’
Two unions comprising tens of thousands of federal employees had requested Illston to prevent the RIFs, and her order applies to any staff represented by those unions. She has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 28 regarding the unions’ request for a preliminary injunction that would maintain the block on the Trump administration from resuming the RIFs. The unions are the American Federation of Government Employees, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The Trump administration had indicated intentions to lay off workers during the shutdown, with Trump repeatedly asserting that the cuts were directed at “Democrat agencies” or initiatives.
Just before Illston’s order temporarily halting layoffs, Vought, speaking on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” indicated that he anticipated “over 10,000” federal positions would be eliminated due to the shutdown.
Illston stated that the Trump administration exploited “the suspension of governmental funding and operations to presume that all norms are gone, the laws no longer apply to them, allowing them to impose their own rules on the government situation they disapprove of,” as reported by NBC.
The judge also expressed confidence that the unions could demonstrate that the Trump administration’s maneuvers were illegal and “arbitrary and capricious.”
Illston’s order was issued on the 15th day of the government shutdown, shortly before a stopgap funding proposal aimed at ending the shutdown failed in the Senate for the ninth time.
Democracy Forward, an advocacy organization representing the unions in the legal proceedings, commended the judge’s ruling.
“The president appears to believe that his government shutdown is diverting attention from the damaging and unlawful actions of his administration, but the American public is holding him accountable, including through legal channels,” remarked Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.
“The court’s statements today clarify that the President’s focus on federal workers—an initiative straight from Project 2025’s agenda—is unlawful,” Perryman stated.
“Our public servants carry out the people’s work, and manipulating their livelihoods is cruel, illegal, and poses a threat to every individual in our nation.”
