Judge Mulls Limited Injunction in Lawsuit Over Job Corps Cuts

A Washington, D.C.-based federal judge appeared skeptical she could provide a limited block of the US Labor Department’s move to wind down the Job Corps training program, questioning whether a lawsuit against the government may warrant a vacatur of the administration’s actions.

During a Wednesday hearing to consider a group of Job Corps students’ request to halt the DOL from pausing operations at 99 program centers, Judge Dabney Friedrich for the District Court for the District of Columbia, questioned what type of relief would be appropriate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. CASA.

Attorneys for the Trump administration said that if the court were to find that the agency acted illegally when ending the program, the plaintiffs weren’t “entitled to complete relief,” and that it should be limited to the individual Job Corps students that brought the case.

But Friedrich struggled with the fact that, in order to provide relief under the Administrative Procedure Act, she would have to vacate the DOL’s full directive for all the Job Corps centers to begin shutting down operations, which would be similar to a nationwide injunction.

This is “such a live issue,” Friedrich said of the CASA decision—which limited when courts can provide nationwide relief across jurisdictions—and requested that the government submit briefs pointing to prior cases where such limited relief was provided in an APA challenge.

Adam Pulver of Public Citizen Litigation Group, who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, disagreed with the government’s proposed relief.

“That’s not how vacatur works,” he said, adding that the court cannot “cut up” the DOL’s action to end the program for all 99 centers into multiple decisions by the agency.

An injunction from Friedrich would extend an order granted by Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. in the Southern District of New York, who issued a nationwide preliminary injunction June 25 blocking the DOL from continuing any efforts to shutter the program.

But if Friedrich were to find that the DOL acted legally when moving to pause the program, that could also cause a circuit split. Meanwhile, Carter has requested the parties in the New York case filed brief on how the CASA case affects the injunction by July 11.

The case centers on the DOL’s announcement at the end of May that it was instructing 99 Job Corps locations to “pause” operations. A group of contractors that run the program, as well as the coalition of students, filed two separate lawsuits in DC and New York federal courts shortly after.

Both cases argue that the DOL’s move to effectively end the training program for low income young adults violated the APA, as well as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act because the agency failed to seek notice and comment from the public or notify Congress.

But, attorneys representing the federal government contend that the groups don’t have a case to bring because the DOL hasn’t formally made a decision to end the program.

“The agency has not just wholly eliminated the program,” said Zareen Iqbal, the Department of Justice attorney arguing on behalf of the DOL said. “It continues to operate as the agency evaluates the future of the program,” she said, adding that the agency was working with members of Congress about how to address their concerns with Job Corps.

That position from Iqbal differed from the arguments made by attorneys representing the DOL in New York federal court, Friedrich noted, where the government said that there were no discussions about reopening the centers in the future.

Since the DOL’s May announcement that Job Corp centers should shutter operations, many students and faculty have left the program, frustrated over the whiplash from the DOL’s directive to leave and court’s orders temporarily reinstating the program.

The Job Corps training program, which started in 1964, provides vocational skills, housing, food, and stipends to low-income people across the country. In exchange, participants receive a high school diploma or equivalent training certifications in trades such as nursing, mechanics, and welding.

Public Citizen Litigation Group and Southern Poverty Law Center represent the Job Corps students that brought the case.

The case is: CABRERA v. US DOL, D.D.C., No. 25-cv-01909, preliminary injunction hearing on 7/9/25.