A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order to at least temporarily block the Trump administration from carrying out RIFs during the government shutdown.
According to an AFGE press release:
The judge ordered the administration to issue no further RIF notices and to take no action to enforce the RIF notices it has already issued in offices at the defendant agencies where the unions represent employees. The judge also ordered the administration to provide detailed information within two days on the RIF notices it has issued.
AFGE is one of two unions that that sued the Trump administration over the layoffs during the government shutdown. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Judge Susan Illston issued the ruling on Wednesday.
The Trump administration began issuing RIF notices late last week. The layoffs reportedly impacted over 4,000 federal employees.
The administration said that it believes that the court order does not apply to most of the federal employees who have already received RIF notices or are expected to receive them in the near future, but rather only applies in agencies where the unions who filed the lawsuit have members or bargaining units.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said Wednesday that as many as 10,000 federal employees could be laid off because of the ongoing government shutdown.
According to POLITICO, Democrats have reportedly begun considering that any layoffs of federal employees conducted during the shutdown be reversed as one of their demands to reopen the government. This, however, would further complicate the ability for Republicans and Democrats to come to an agreement to end the shutdown.
The final outcome of this latest court battle may ultimately determine whether Democrats in Congress draw a hard line on the matter. If the courts wind up allowing the layoffs during the shutdown, that could become their only real recourse in reversing them.
