US judge blocks federal layoffs during shutdown, calls directives unlawful

By Seyit Kurt

ISTANBUL (AA) – A US federal judge has temporarily halted the government’s plan to lay off thousands of employees during the ongoing shutdown, saying the administration’s directives violated both congressional mandates and administrative law, Roll Call reported Wednesday.

Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said federal employee unions are likely to succeed in their lawsuit claiming the government breached administrative procedures by authorizing reductions in force (RIFs) during the shutdown.

“If what plaintiffs allege is true, then the agencies’ actions in laying off thousands of public employees during a government shutdown — and in targeting for RIFs those programs that are perceived as favored by a particular political party — is the epitome of hasty, arbitrary and capricious decisionmaking,” Illston wrote.

The judge said numerous mistakes cited in the plaintiffs’ filings supported the claim of arbitrary decision-making.

She also ruled that directives from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordering agencies to implement RIFs rest on unlawful grounds.

“The memorandum thus essentially seeks to overturn mandates that Congress has put in place,” she wrote. “Neither the OMB/OPM documents themselves, nor defendants in their opposition papers, make any attempt to justify this position.”

White House Budget Director Russ Vought said in a radio interview Wednesday that he believed the number of employees to be laid off would far exceed the 4,100 reported by the government in court filings on Friday. He suggested the total could more than double as agencies finalize their plans.

“And we’re going to keep these RIFs rolling throughout this shutdown because we think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people,” Vought said.

“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy — not just the funding but the bureaucracy,” he added. “And we now have an opportunity to do that.”

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Congress failed to reach an agreement over health care subsidies. Since then, the Trump administration has issued thousands of RIF notices and reduced grants to multiple agencies and organizations.

The longest government shutdown in US history lasted 35 days in 2019.