Judge lectures DOJ lawyer over 'inaccurate interpretation' of court order barring Trump admin from firing
Source: Law & Crime
Oct 18th, 2025, 1:47 pm
A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday chided the Trump administration for continuing to flout its obligations under a restraining order barring the government from moving forward with a series of pre-planned layoffs during the government shutdown. For the second time this week, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Bill Clinton appointee, tore into U.S. Department of Justice attorneys over so-called reductions in force (RIFs) aimed at slashing federal payrolls.
The RIFs were first proposed late last month, before the shutdown began, the plaintiffs in the litigation pointed out in their 31-page complaint filed on Sept. 30 in the Northern District of California. Friday's hearing was of the emergency type. The proceedings were hastily requested by the plaintiffs – and called for by the judge – after the government was alleged to be planning to violate a restraining order issued earlier this week blocking the issuance of any such RIFs.
During the hearing, an attorney for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents thousands of federal workers assigned to various federal agencies, said the Trump administration was misinterpreting the temporary restraining order (TRO).
"We think that they are overly narrowly interpreting the scope of the TRO and ignoring some of the language," lawyer Danielle Leonard said, according to a courtroom report by Federal News Network, a Washington, D.C.-based radio station. "The TRO says 'bargaining units or members,' and there's a reason for that language. The unions represent members regardless of whether they are in bargaining units, including at the agencies like HHS, where the government has tried to eliminate their right to have a bargaining unit."
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/it-is-not-complicated-judge-lectures-doj-lawyer-over-inaccurate-interpretation-of-court-order-barring-trump-admin-from-firing-government-workers-during-shutdown/
Full headline: 'It is not complicated': Judge lectures DOJ lawyer over 'inaccurate interpretation' of court order barring Trump admin from firing government workers during shutdown
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