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A person holds a sign during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025.— Reuters
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A California judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with massive federal job cuts during the partial shutdown, after unions challenged the legality of the layoffs.
During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Alston granted a request by two unions to block layoffs at more than 30 federal agencies while the case moves forward.
The decision is likely to be appealed soon, but it offers a reprieve to federal workers facing a nearly year-long push by the Trump administration to cut their ranks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House said last week that it had initiated substantial furloughs across the U.S. government, as Trump followed through on his threat to reduce the federal workforce during his 15th day of government shutdown. In an order on Wednesday, Trump extended an existing freeze on hiring new federal workers by exempting military personnel and appointees in political roles.
About 4,100 workers in eight agencies have been notified that they are being laid off so far, according to a Tuesday court filing by management.
White House budget director Russell Voight said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that the shutdown could cause more than 10,000 federal workers to lose their jobs.
Alston cited a series of public statements from Trump at the hearing that he said showed clear political motivations for the cuts, such as Trump saying the cuts would target “Democrat agencies.”
“You can’t do that here in a nation of laws. And we have laws here, and the things that are being described here are not within the law,” said Alston, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
The judge asks for details about the leave
Forward of Democracy, a legal group representing unions, said Alston made it clear that the president’s targeting of federal workers is illegal.
“Our public servants do people’s work, and gambling with their livelihoods is cruel and illegal and a threat to everyone in our nation,” Sky Perryman, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Elston ordered the administration by Friday to provide an accounting of any “actual or imminent” furloughs and outline the steps agencies are taking to comply with his decision.
Elizabeth Hedges, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, said at the hearing that she was not ready to address Alston’s concerns about the legality of the vacations. Instead, he argued, unions would have to bring their claims to the Federal Labor Board before they could be sued in court.
Alston disagreed and agreed with the Justice Department’s refusal to take a position on the unions’ legal claims.
“The hatchet is falling on the heads of employees all over the country, and you’re not even willing to pay attention to whether it’s legal,” he said.
The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees contend that furlough enforcement is not an essential service that can be performed during a shortfall in government funding, and that the shutdown does not justify massive job cuts because most federal workers have been furloughed without pay.
Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress but need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate, where Democrats are working to extend health insurance subsidies. Democrats have said they won’t budge on Trump’s pressure tactics, and a new bid to pass a spending bill on Wednesday failed.
