On October 14, 2025, the traffic light in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC turns red.
Celal Gunes/ | Anadolu | Getty Images
A federal judge on Tuesday extended a temporary order blocking the Trump administration’s plan to lay off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown.
Judge Susan Illston said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that the order, called a “preliminary injunction,” prohibits the administration from issuing a reduction in force (RIF) notice until the government reopens.
Illston had imposed a short-term layoff freeze, known as a temporary restraining order (TRO), on October 15.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the union plaintiffs in the case, praised the judge’s latest order.
“Today’s ruling is another victory for federal employees and our continued efforts to protect their jobs from a government bent on wrongful termination,” AFSCME President Lee Sanders said in a statement.
The American Federation of Public Employees, another plaintiff in the case, called the ruling “a huge victory for federal employees!”
Unions representing federal employees filed the lawsuit on the eve of the federal government shutdown to preemptively challenge the Trump administration’s stated plans to carry out mass layoffs if federal funding is cut off.
President Donald Trump said the current government shutdown, now the second-longest in history, gives his administration an “opportunity” to cut back on what he calls “the Democratic Party’s institutions.”
Days after the shutdown began, the plaintiffs expanded their lawsuit to include dozens more federal agencies and their leaders.
The Trump administration announced on October 10 that it had issued approximately 4,000 RIFs.
White House Budget Director Russell Vought, author of the right-wing government policy guidebook known as “Project 2025,” said the following week that the total number of RIFs “will likely end up exceeding 10,000.”
Vought’s remarks came on the same day that Illston granted her a TRO, calling the layoff plan during the government shutdown “unprecedented in our nation’s history.”
Asked for comment on Tuesday’s preliminary injunction, the White House referred CNBC to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond.
Illston’s ruling is “a major blow to the Trump-Vance administration’s illegal efforts to make its Project 2025 strategy a reality by targeting our nation’s career public servants who work for all Americans,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal group representing AFSCME in the lawsuit.
“Our team is honored to win this important injunction on behalf of public servants fighting back against President Trump’s dangerous policies and helping to stop federal employees from continuing to be targeted and harassed during the government shutdown,” Perryman said in a statement.
