Federal Judge Extends Block on Shutdown Layoffs

The government shutdown is now in its 28th day with seemingly no end in sight. (Eric Lee/Getty Images)

Key Points

• A federal judge extended an order blocking thousands of federal worker layoffs planned by the Trump administration during the shutdown.
• Judge Susan Illston indicated unions are likely to succeed in claims that the layoffs are “arbitrary and capricious” and for “political retribution.”
• The ruling covers announced layoffs and any planned while the order is in effect, potentially including 1,400 Treasury Department workers.

A federal judge has extended a prior order blocking thousands of layoffs of federal workers that the Trump administration planned to carry out during the shutdown. The ruling covers both announced layoffs and any that are planned for as long as the order is in effect.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Susan Illston in Northern California District Court said Tuesday that she thinks that the labor unions that sued on behalf of affected workers to stop the layoffs are likely to succeed in their claims that they are “arbitrary and capricious” and “intended for the purpose of political retribution.”

The judge also indicated that she plans to extend the scope of protected workers under her ruling to include the approximately 1,400 Treasury department employees represented by the National Treasury Employees Union who also received layoff notices earlier this month. NTEU asked to join the suit after it was filed.

“We are talking about human lives and those lives have been dramatically affected,” Judge Susan Illston said, before making her ruling.

The government argued that agencies had the authority to remove workers during a shutdown, while labor unions representing affected workers have called the move unlawful.

Earlier in October, Judge Illston had issued a temporary restraining order blocking some of the approximately 4,000 layoffs announced so far across the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Health & Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security, and Treasury Departments. Her ruling also led the government to halt planned cuts of some 2,000 workers in the Interior Dept.

Not all of the shutdown-related layoffs were blocked, however, because the court order was limited to programs and projects of agencies represented by the unions filing the lawsuit. Some workers who received layoff notices weren’t represented by those unions.

Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought has said that more than 10,000 layoffs could be announced during the shutdown.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com