Ninth Circuit Allows Pause on Trump’s Federal Worker Layoffs (1)

A divided federal appeals court upheld a freeze on President Donald Trump’s purge of federal workers while a broader legal dispute plays out on appeal.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a 2-1 decision Friday rejected Trump’s emergency request to stay a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court judge, who said the president’s order was likely unconstitutional without the cooperation of Congress.

The order will temporarily shield thousands of workers from termination across 20 agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.

It further hampers the Trump administration’s months-long efforts to downsize the federal government in the name of cost savings and efficiency.

A coalition of unions, nonprofits, and municipalities sued last month to block widespread workforce reductions, alleging the administration acted beyond its legal authority and violated the Constitution’s separation of powers in deciding to broadly restructure federal agencies and fire thousands of employees.

“We are gratified by the court’s decision today to allow the pause of these harmful actions to endure while our case proceeds,” the coalition said in a statement about the ruling.

Judge William Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, wrote that the unions were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims. He was joined in the majority opinion by Judge Lucy Koh, aBiden appointee.

The plaintiffs showed clear evidence that they face irreparable harm absent an injunction, Fletcher said. In addition to thousands of employees losing their salary, “these large-scale reductions in force” reach “far beyond the walls of the executive agencies,” he wrote.

“Pulling a small handful of examples from the record, we point out that the current executive re-organization facilitates the proliferation of foodborne disease, contributes to hazardous environmental conditions, hinders efforts to prevent and monitor infectious disease, eviscerates disaster loan services for local businesses, and drastically reduces the provision of healthcare and other services to our nation’s veterans,” the opinion said.

The preliminary injunction was issued May 22 by a San Francisco federal judge, who found that the Trump administration needed to consult lawmakers before restructuring agencies that were created by Congress.

The Ninth Circuit’s opinion drew a dissent from Judge Consuelo Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee, who said the plaintiffs’ lawsuit bypasses the “comprehensive administrative scheme that Congress has enacted to handle federal sector labor and employment disputes.”

Those kinds of labor disputes should be channeled through the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, she said.

Even if the coalition had grounds to sue, it would still likely lose on the merits, the judge said.

“Surely the Executive, under the direction of the President, has substantial discretion over the management of its own personnel, including the number of personnel needed to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed,” Callahan said.

Altshuler Berzon LLP and Democracy Forward Foundation represent the coalition. The Justice Department represents the government.

The case is AFGE v. Trump, 9th Cir., No. 25-3293, order 5/30/25.