District Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration’s Shutdown Layoffs

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans to lay off more than 4,000 federal workers during the government shutdown, including hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other federal labor unions filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 challenging the planned reductions in force (RIFs), arguing that they are illegal, exceed the administration’s authority and are arbitrary and capricious.

In the temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California found that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on their claim that OPM and OMB’s direction that agencies consider RIFs during a shutdown rests on illegal grounds.”

Illston barred the administration taking any action to issue any RIF notices to federal employees and from taking any action to enforce the RIF notices issued after Oct. 10 in offices at the defendant agencies where the unions represent employees.

A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28, when attorneys for the unions and administration will present further arguments.