Trump Likely Violated Layoff Freeze, Federal Judge Says (2)

The Trump administration appears to be flouting a court order halting mass government layoffs, a federal judge said Wednesday.

Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the administration to prove by June 9 that two sets of layoffs—at the departments of State and Housing and Urban Development—don’t violate a preliminary injunction issued by the court last month.

The order marks another setback for the Trump administration as it fights to cut the size of the government, and adds another layer of complexity to the high-stakes legal challenge. Union plaintiffs told the court that the administration was violating a May 23 preliminary injunction halting the layoffs while the court challenge moves forward.

Illston largely rejected the government’s claim that the layoffs were separate from President Donald Trump’s downsizing order issued Feb. 11. The State Department layoffs weren’t part of the president’s widespread staff reduction plan, and were at the sole discretion of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump administration attorney Andrew Bernie told Illston. Forty planned layoffs at 17 other agencies had been halted, he said.

“This was not DOGE driven,” he said.

Illston, however, said the State Department’s actions seem to violate the preliminary injunction, and told the government it would have to present a counterargument next week. Layoff notices wouldn’t go out until June 13 at the earliest, and wouldn’t take effect for at least 60 days, Bernie said.

“It appears to me,” Illston said, “that what is being implemented at the State Department now is covered by the injunction.”

The firing of fewer than 100 probationary employees at HUD was also in question. The Trump administration still believes it can fire probationary employees outside the scope of the frozen executive order, since they’re still under a trial period.

The case from the American Federation of Government Employees along with other unions and nonprofits is the most expansive challenge to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency executive order, which directed agency heads to draft reorganization plans that center on steep reduction in personnel. The administration has tried to purge more than 30,000 workers from various agencies, and offered other exit options through deferred resignation.

The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to ax $9.4 billion in already approved spending, formalizing some of the DOGE cuts.

Trump’s legal team filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court June 2, asking for permission to resume firing federal workers while the case moves forward.

The request came after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a similar petition.

In its ruling, Judge William Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, said the executive order poses immediate harm to government workers and “far beyond the walls of these executive agencies.”

The case is AFGE et al v. Trump, N.D. Cal., 3:25-cv-03698.