A federal judge in California has permanently blocked a Trump administration plan to dismiss thousands of government employees, solidifying a previous temporary injunction and delivering a major victory to federal workers’ unions. The ruling, issued Tuesday by Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, halts any further implementation of mass layoffs that were to occur under a Reduction in Force (RIF) order.
“Today’s ruling is another victory for federal workers and our ongoing efforts to protect their jobs from an administration hellbent on illegally firing them,” said Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
The decision came after reports that the administration intended to terminate as many as 10,000 federal employees as part of a cost-cutting measure linked to a potential government shutdown. Roughly 4,000 workers had already received RIF notices before the court’s intervention. The move sparked widespread backlash and prompted multiple unions to file a lawsuit last month, arguing that the planned dismissals violated federal labor and administrative laws.
The controversy reached Capitol Hill, where lawmakers from both parties condemned the proposed mass firings. Among them, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) criticized the administration’s actions as “arbitrary,” emphasizing that “regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public.”
Judge Illston’s order not only prevents additional layoffs but also blocks federal agencies from acting on earlier directives from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that urged departments to consider workforce reductions. The court’s ruling underscored growing tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary over the limits of presidential authority during government shutdown scenarios.