White House asks 9th Circuit to toss restraining order on layoffs

The Donald Trump administration has asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in Northern California that suspends mass layoffs at federal agencies.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued a decision May 9 blocking the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and others temporarily blocking mass reductions in force for a period of two weeks.

That would be until May 23. The judge called for the parties to submit more legal filings in the meantime.

Illston issued the order in response to a lawsuit brought April 28 by the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, and other plaintiffs, including non-profits and municipalities.

The Department of Justice, representing the White House, filed a notice of appeal with the 9th Circuit on May 9 right after the district judge’s decision. 

“The Court finds that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of at least some of their claims,” the judge held. “The irreparable harm that plaintiffs will suffer in the absence of injunctive relief outweighs any burden placed on the government by this two-week pause.”

“As history demonstrates, the President may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” the judge said in the ruling.

Among other things, Judge Illston’s order says one of the chief architects of the layoffs “is known colloquially as the Department of Government Efficiency, but it derives no authority from statutes.”

The various agencies, such as DOE and DoD, named in the suit were instructed by the administration to submit Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plans in March and April, according to the judge’s ruling.

“The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch,” the district court judge held.