A federal judge in San Francisco is blocking President Donald Trump from laying off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown, calling the administration’s attempt at a mass firing “political retribution.”
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco said Tuesday that unions representing federal employees were likely to prove that the job cuts were illegal. Although the White House may still prevail in the long run, Illston’s preliminary injunction indefinitely pauses the layoffs while the underlying case plays out in court.
The Trump administration had vowed to fire federal workers en masse if Democrats stood their ground in their funding fight with congressional Republicans. They tried to make good on that threat with a series of “reductions in force,” or RIF’s, that were announced Oct. 10 and covered roughly 4,000 workers.
Illston previously issued a temporary restraining order in the case to prevent Trump from moving ahead with the layoffs.
Unions have argued that the White House does not have the legal authority to pursue RIF’s while the government is not funded. They have also said the layoffs are clearly retaliatory.
Indeed, Trump boasted about slashing “Democrat” programs and agencies, describing the shutdown as an opportunity to attack the federal workforce further.
“We’re being able to do things that we were unable to do before,” the president said Oct. 14. “So we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up or that we never wanted to happen. And now we’re closing them up, and we’re not going to let them come back.”
Illston described the layoffs as “political retribution” during a court hearing Tuesday, according to Federal News Network.
Eight unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, took the administration to court in hopes of blocking the firings. Randi Weingarten, AFT’s president, said in a statement Tuesday that the attempted layoffs were a “callous act” of retaliation on the part of the White House.
“It shows their complete and utter contempt for the workers who’ve dedicated their careers to helping their fellow Americans,” Weingarten said. “That’s why the court decided to hold the administration accountable for its blatantly unconstitutional actions.”