WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown.
“The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws,” U.S. District Judge Susan Yvonne Illston said. “You can’t do this in a nation of laws.”
The decision comes after two unions sued the Trump administration last month ahead of the shutdown after the White House hinted at a plan to lay off workers through “reductions in force” (RIFs) at federal agencies.
Illston said that the Trump administration had “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore, and they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don’t like.”
Illston continued, saying that in her view, the Trump administration’s actions were illegal, in excess of authority and “arbitrary and capricious.”
“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
Hours before, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said he expects “more than 10,000” federal workers to be cut while the government is closed.
“We’re definitely talking thousands of people. Much of the reporting has been based on, kind of court snapshots, which they’ve articulated,” Vought said on “The Charlie Kirk Show”.
But that’s just a snapshot, and I think it’ll get much higher. And we’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown, because we think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people,” he added.
Vought, the co-author of Project 2025, said the Green New Deal programs at the Department of Energy and the “Minority Business Development Agency at Commerce” were two programs that could be cut.
The Green New Deal was never implimented by the Biden administration.
