A federal court has granted a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration\u2019s firings of federal employees during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n
The ruling by Judge Susan Illston of the US district court\u2019s northern district of California<\/a> came in response to a lawsuit filed by labor unions representing federal workers.<\/p>\n \u201cI am inclined to grant the plaintiff\u2019s motion,\u201d said Illston during a court hearing<\/a> on the injunction request. \u201cThe evidence suggests that the office of management and budget, OMB, and the office of personnel management, OPM, have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don\u2019t apply to them any more, and that they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don\u2019t like, and I find, I believe, that the plaintiffs will demonstrate, ultimately, that what\u2019s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice department attorney Elizabeth Hedges said she was not prepared to discuss the merits of the case.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, the [temporary restraining order] is in effect,\u201d Illston said.<\/p>\n The ruling comes as Russ Vought, the White House OMB director, said<\/a> on The Charlie Kirk Show that more cuts were coming, claiming the firings could be \u201cnorth of 10,000\u201d workers.<\/p>\n On Friday, the Trump administration announced \u201creductions in force\u201d across seven federal agencies, with at least 4,100 workers<\/a> affected, citing the shutdown as justification for the firings.<\/p>\n Unions representing federal employees \u2013 the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) \u2013 filed a lawsuit on 30 September, before the shutdown, in response to threats from the Trump administration that it would conduct reductions in force.<\/p>\n