Judge blocks Trump firing workers amid government shutdown

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration for now from laying off federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown.

The decision comes five days after the administration issued reduction-in-force notices to more than 4,000 federal employees.

“The activities carried out here are against the law,” said the US District Court in San Francisco Judge Susan Yvonne Illston He told attorneys on behalf of the administration at a hearing Wednesday where he issued a temporary restraining order.

“You can’t do that in a country with laws,” Illston said, according to NBC News.

Two unions representing tens of thousands of federal workers had asked Illston to block the RIFs.

The Trump administration had warned it would lay off workers during the shutdown, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the cuts were aimed at “Democratic institutions” or initiatives.

Shortly before Illston issued his order blocking layoffs, White House Budget Director Russell Vought said during an interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that he expected “north of 10,000” federal jobs to be cut due to the shutdown.

According to NBC, Illston said the Trump administration “took advantage of the breakdown in government spending and the functioning of government to assume that all bets are off, that the laws no longer apply to them, and that they can impose structures they like on government situations they don’t like.”

The judge also said he believed the unions could prove that the Trump administration’s actions were illegal, “arbitrary and capricious.”

Democracy Forward, an advocacy group that represents unions in court, praised the judge’s decision.

“The President thinks the government shutdown distracts people from his administration’s harmful and unlawful actions, but the American people are holding him accountable, including through the courts,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.

“The court’s pronouncements today make clear that the President’s targeting of federal employees—a move straight out of the Project 2025 playbook—is unlawful,” Perryman said.

““Our officers are doing the people’s job, and toying with their livelihood is cruel, unlawful and a threat to everyone in our nation.”

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