A woman walks past a sign indicating that the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is closed as the federal government continues its shutdown on October 6, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
With the federal government shutdown now lasting two weeks, a federal judge in San Francisco will have to determine whether to temporarily halt the latest wave of layoffs by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will hear preliminary arguments Wednesday in a case brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which together represent more than 800,000 federal workers.
In a brief filed Tuesday in court, the unions accuse the Trump administration of “using federal employees as pawns to impose political pressure on the administration’s perceived opponents in Congress.”
They are asking the court for a temporary restraining order to suspend the implementation of layoffs already underway – including “stopping the clock” on the 60-day notice period – and block the sending of any additional layoff notices.
“This is an illegal abuse of power intended to punish patriotic public officials and pressure Congress,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in an interview with NPR. Morning edition October 1st.
The Trump administration argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. In their view, the president’s actions are well within his authority as head of the executive branch, and any pause would be inappropriate.
“The President, through the White House Office of Management and Budget, has determined that the agencies should operate more efficiently and directed them to consider measures to optimize their workforces in light of the continued appropriations shortfall,” administration lawyers wrote in their brief to the court. “A TRO would prevent agencies from taking action to implement this policy priority.”
The hearing comes as the Trump administration has begun a new round of layoffs, known as workforce reductions, or RIFs. As of Friday, at least seven different agencies sent RIF notices to more than 4,000 federal employees, according to an update from Stephen Billy, senior advisor to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Noting that the situation is “fluid and evolving rapidly,” Billy warned that the numbers could change.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration provided a new update with a slightly lower number, but again emphasized that “agencies are continually finalizing their RIF plans.”
Trump says layoffs affect ‘Democrat-sponsored programs’
The lawsuit was initially filed in response to a memo issued by the OMB a week before the shutdown. He urged agencies to use the lack of funding as an opportunity to consider laying off employees who work on programs and activities not aligned with President Trump’s priorities.
Since then, Trump has blamed Democrats for the shutdown and claimed his administration had no choice but to permanently eliminate some federal jobs due to expiring congressional appropriations, a stark departure from past shutdowns in which the government only temporarily furloughed employees.
Trump simultaneously called the shutdown an “unprecedented opportunity” given to him by Democrats to reshape the government.
“We’re ending some programs that we don’t want. They happen to be Democratic-sponsored programs, but we’re ending some programs that we never wanted and we’re probably not going to allow them to come back,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “I think they made a mistake. I think they made a big mistake.”
The latest RIFs target the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services; the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; as well as parts of the Internal Revenue Service, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among other agencies.
More than half of the 1,300 CDC employees who received layoff notices Friday then had those notices rescinded over the weekend, according to AFGE. In a statement filed with the court Tuesday, Thomas Nagy, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the CDC, confirmed that due to “data discrepancies and processing errors,” RIF notices were erroneously sent to nearly 800 HHS employees.
Unions: Trump cannot use shutdown to cut programs
The federal employee unions claim in their complaint that OMB and its director Russell Vought are taking the “legally untenable position” that expiring appropriations eliminates legal requirements for federal agencies to implement programs previously funded by Congress.
Unions say the memo issued by OMB before the shutdown illegally directs agencies to disregard their own authorization laws.
The unions are also challenging guidance subsequently issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which informed agencies that employees needed to implement RIFs could be asked to work during the shutdown. The unions say this is a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, the law that prohibits federal agencies from spending money during a shutdown, with some exceptions, including for work that involves “the safety of human life or protection of property.”
“The administration of an RIF is in no way necessary to protect life or property from imminent harm,” the complaint states.
The unions asked the court to declare that OMB and OPM exceeded their statutory authorities and acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and to invalidate any actions that may have resulted from the memos and directives issued.
Trump administration says court lacks jurisdiction
The lawsuit initially named OMB and OPM, and their directors, as defendants. It was later amended to include more than 30 federal agencies.
In its response to the suit filed Friday, the Trump administration urged the court to deny the unions’ requests for a temporary restraining order, arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear a case involving federal employment issues. The government points out that Congress created a federal agency, the Merit Systems Protection Board, to deal with such issues, although its independence has been compromised under the current administration. It is also almost completely closed at the moment.
Government attorneys further argued that all decisions regarding RIF employees were made by the agencies in accordance with proper procedures, noting that 26 agencies named as defendants in the lawsuit had not yet announced the RIFs.
For Judge Illston, another chance to weigh in on federal firings
This is the second case of mass layoffs from the Trump administration that Illston has presided over this year. In May, the Clinton-appointed judge indefinitely suspended Trump’s sweeping government overhaul, ruling that the president had failed to obtain authorization from “his coequal and partner branch, Congress,” as required by law.
“Agencies cannot carry out large-scale reorganizations and reductions in force in blatant disregard of Congressional mandates, and a President cannot initiate a large-scale reorganization of the executive branch without partnering with Congress,” Illston wrote in his ruling.
The Trump administration appealed the decision, ultimately asking the Supreme Court to rule. In a decision released on its shadow docket, the Supreme Court lifted Illston’s order, allowing the Trump administration to resume layoffs while lower courts consider whether RIFs conducted by agencies are legal.
Subsequently, some agencies, including HHS, finalized previously announced RIFs. But many others have said they will not make further workforce reductions given the large number of federal employees who have resigned or retired this year. In fact, some agencies have since rehired staff.
Although the Trump administration has characterized the latest round of RIFs as a consequence of the shutdown, many federal employees told NPR that they believe the layoffs are just a continuation of the president’s efforts to gut the federal government — an effort that has been well underway since January.
