A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administration from proceeding with layoffs of federal employees during the ongoing government shutdown.
The ruling came five days after more than 4,000 federal workers received reduction-in-force notices. U.S. District Judge Susan Yvonne Illston issued a temporary restraining order, saying the administration’s actions “are contrary to the laws.”
“You can’t do this in a nation of laws,” Illston said during Wednesday’s hearing. “And we have laws here, and the things that are being articulated here are not within the law.”
The case was brought by two unions representing tens of thousands of federal employees who sought to halt the planned layoffs. Illston cited statements by President Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought suggesting that the cuts targeted programs favored by Democrats.
Illston said the 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,” calling the move “arbitrary and capricious.”
