California judge pauses much of Trump administration’s slashing of federal agencies

SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration must halt much of its drastic downsizing of the federal workforce, a California judge ordered Friday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued the emergency order in a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities last week, one of multiple legal challenges to President Trump’s efforts to drastically shrink the size of a federal government he calls bloated and too expensive.

“The Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime,” Illston wrote in her order.

The temporary restraining order directs numerous federal agencies to halt acting on the president’s workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management and Elon Musk’s White House advisory team, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The order, which expires in 14 days, does not require departments to rehire people. Plaintiffs asked that the effective date of any agency action be postponed and that departments stop implementing or enforcing the executive order, including taking any further action.

They limited their request to departments where dismantlement is underway or poised to begin, including at the Department of Health and Human Services, which announced in March it would lay off 10,000 workers and centralize divisions.

Illston, who was nominated to the bench by former President Clinton, said at a hearing Friday that a president has authority to seek changes in the executive branch departments and agencies created by Congress.

“But he must do so in lawful ways,” she said. “He must do so with the cooperation of Congress; the Constitution is structured that way.”

Trump has repeatedly said voters gave him a mandate to remake the federal government, and he tapped Musk, his billionaire advisor and major campaign donor, to lead the charge through DOGE.

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, left their jobs via deferred resignation programs or have been placed on leave as a result of Trump’s government-shrinking efforts. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go.

In her order, Illston gave several examples to show the effect of the downsizing.

One union that represents federal workers who research health hazards faced by mine workers said it was poised to lose 221 of 222 workers in its Pittsburgh office. A Vermont farmer didn’t receive a timely inspection on his property to receive disaster aid after flooding and missed an important planting window. A reduction in Social Security Administration workers has led to longer wait times for recipients.

All the agencies affected were created by Congress, she noted.

Lawyers for the government argued Friday that the executive order and memo calling for large-scale personnel reductions and reorganization plans provided only general principles that agencies should follow in their own decision-making process.

“It expressly invites comments and proposals for legislative engagement as part of policies that those agencies wish to implement,” Eric Hamilton, a deputy assistant attorney general, said of the memo. “It is setting out guidance.”

But Danielle Leonard, an attorney for plaintiffs, said it was clear that the president, DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management were making decisions outside their authority and not inviting dialogue from agencies.

“They are not waiting for these planning documents” to go through long processes, she said. “They’re not asking for approval, and they’re not waiting for it.”

The temporary restraining order applies to agencies including the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Interior, State, Treasury and Veteran Affairs.

It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.

Some of the labor unions and nonprofit groups involved in the lawsuit are also plaintiffs in another suit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his order.

Plaintiffs include the cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore; the American Federation of Government Employees union; and the nonprofit groups Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Taxpayer Rights and Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

Har writes for the Associated Press.