A U.S. District Judge has halted the Trump administration’s plan to lay off thousands of federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown, ruling that the decision appeared to be politically motivated rather than financially necessary.
According to the BBC, Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary injunction less than a week after the administration confirmed that about 4,000 workers across more than 30 federal agencies had begun receiving layoff notices. The ruling followed an emergency motion filed by two labor unions seeking to stop the dismissals.
During the hearing, Judge Illston agreed with the unions’ argument that the administration was exploiting the funding lapse—which began on October 1—to advance a broader political agenda to shrink the federal workforce.
She cited multiple public remarks made by former President Donald Trump and White House budget chief Russell Vought, noting that they exposed “explicit political motivations” behind the layoffs.
“Statements made by the President, including that the cuts would target ‘Democrat agencies,’ undermine the government’s claim that this was a neutral, budgetary measure,” the judge stated.
The Justice Department countered that the unions should have taken their complaints to a federal labor board rather than a court. However, Judge Illston ruled that the urgency and potential harm to thousands of workers warranted immediate judicial intervention.
Her injunction halts all ongoing and planned layoffs pending further court proceedings—a major setback for the administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government.
Earlier reports indicated that the layoffs targeted key agencies such as the Treasury Department, Department of Health, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Departments of Education and Commerce, and the Cybersecurity division of the Department of Homeland Security.
While the full scale of the cuts remains unclear, insiders suggested that hundreds of thousands of federal employees could ultimately be affected.
President Trump, who has long pledged to reduce the size of the federal workforce, has blamed Democrats for the shutdown and the resulting layoffs, accusing them of “sabotaging America’s economic recovery” by opposing his proposed budget cuts.
“They started this thing,” Trump said, describing the job cuts as “Democrat-oriented.”
