Most major agencies must pause RIFs for at least two weeks, judge orders

Federal agencies cannot take any action to implement its widespread layoff plans across government after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration has likely acted unlawfully in ordering the staffing reductions. 

The pause came in the form of a temporary restraining order and will last at least 14 days, Judge Susan Illston for the U.S. Court for the Northern District of California ruled Friday evening, meaning agencies cannot issue any reduction-in-force notices through May 23. The order came as several agencies, such as the Interior Department, Agriculture and others, were expected to begin implementing large-scale layoffs in the coming days. 

The order prevents agencies from implementing their Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans, previously mandated by the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget, and President Trump’s executive order that precipitated them. It applies to OMB and OPM, as well as the departments of Agriculture Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation and Veterans Affairs. It also applies to AmeriCorps, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration. 

The plaintiffs, made up of federal employee unions, nonprofit groups and local governments, are likely to succeed on the merits of the case, Illston said, because “the president has neither constitutional nor, at this time, statutory authority to reorganize the executive branch.” Presidents can and have undertaken large-scale reorganization efforts, the judge said, but they must work collaboratively with Congress to do so. 

“Federal courts should not micromanage the vast federal workforce, but courts must sometimes act to preserve the proper checks and balances between the three branches of government,” Illston said. 

The Trump administration defended the actions because the president did issue mandates for specific actions and OMB and OPM only provided guidance for how agencies should conduct RIFs. In reality, however, Illston said the evidence demonstrates agencies are “acting at the direction of the president and his team.” 

She added Congress has not provided OPM or OMB with any authority to order other agencies to institute mass terminations at federal agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency, which has overseen the RIF plans throughout government, has "no statutory authority at all," the judge said. 

“DOGE therefore could not have been acting pursuant to statutory authority in ordering large-scale RIFs of the workforces at the defendant federal agencies,” Ilston said. 

In addition to pausing the RIFs, agencies will have to submit their layoff plans—both those they proposed and the versions approved by OPM and OMB—by Tuesday. Agencies have not provided those plans publicly, though details in many cases have been leaked. The court will hold a hearing for a potential longer-lasting preliminary hearing on May 22. 

Agencies are currently in various stages of issuing layoffs, though tens of thousands of employees have already been affected. If agencies follow through with plans on the scope directed by Trump and the White House, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are expected to exit government through RIFs and incentivized attrition.