A federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration’s plan to fire more than 4,000 federal employees during the ongoing government shutdown.
Federal worker unions, which say the proposed job cuts are illegal and unwarranted, celebrated the decision. They stated the government shutdown was already affecting federal employees, and the threat of losing their jobs permanently was causing financial struggles for members.
On October 15, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston temporarily suspended the federal government’s enforcement of Reduction-in-Force (RIF) notices that had been sent to federal employees. The temporary restraining order came in response to an emergency petition filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and AFSCME.
The court later extended its order to include the 110,000 federal workers who are members of the National Federation of Federal Employees, as well as members of the National Association of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union. Another filing on October 22 asked the court to add federal employees represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, American Federation of Teachers, and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers to the temporary restraining order.
While the federal government agreed to temporarily halt the RIFs for union members involved in the ongoing lawsuit, the Interior Department was the lone exception. The political website The Hill reported that the agency said it would go ahead with planned cuts to 1,539 employees, but would hold off on cutting those who are unionized. During the debate over the government shutdown, the Trump administration’s planned RIFs were a coordinated threat. Normally, when there is a shutdown, “excepted” federal employees continue working without pay until government funding is restored, while “non-excepted” employees are furloughed and receive back pay at a later date. The RIFs threatened workers with permanent job loss without these usual protections.
Union leaders and their legal advocates immediately condemned the RIF threat.
“The administration’s move to fire thousands of federal employees who are already going without pay during the government shutdown is not only cruel but unlawful,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “These are dedicated public servants who keep our nation running –– protecting public health, supporting education, ensuring fair housing, and driving economic growth. We are pleased with the court’s ruling halting these unlawful terminations and preventing the administration from further targeting hardworking civil servants during the shutdown.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, the legal representatives for AFGE and AFSCME, called the action ideologically driven: “The president’s targeting of federal workers — a move straight out of Project 2025’s playbook — is unlawful,” she said. “Playing games with their livelihoods is cruel and unlawful, and a threat to everyone in our nation.”
Congressional Democratic Party members also accused the Trump administration of using the shutdown as cover to reshape the federal workforce ideologically. In an October 21 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, they wrote: “The chaotic nature of these RIFs, the threats to violate the law to abandon the Administration’s legal duty to provide furloughed employees with back pay after any government shutdown, and your own statements reveal the true goal of these efforts: to punish federal employees for their service to the nation and to destabilize federal agencies and the programs and laws they carry out — and to harm the American public.”
A hearing is scheduled for October 28 to determine whether Judge Illston’s temporary restraining order against firing federal workers should be extended to a longer injunction.