US State Department's planned layoffs may violate court order, judge says
Source: Reuters
June 4, 2025 5:52 PM EDT Updated 3 hours ago
June 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge in California on Wednesday said her recent ruling barring President Donald Trump's administration from laying off tens of thousands of federal employees likely blocks the U.S. State Department's reorganization plan that includes 2,000 job cuts.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco during a virtual meeting in a lawsuit by unions, nonprofits and municipalities said she was concerned that the State Department is flouting her May 22 order that broadly blocked government-wide mass layoffs.
Illston temporarily blocked about 20 agencies, including the State Department, from carrying out plans to downsize and restructure federal agencies at Trump's direction. But the department told Congress last week that it still planned to notify about 2,000 employees this month that they were being laid off and would reorganize or eliminate more than 300 bureaus and offices.
“At this point there are some semantics being bandied about, but it appears to me that what is being implemented at the State Department now is covered by the injunction,” said Illston, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Illston ordered both sides to file briefs on the matter next week and said she would hold a hearing by June 13, the earliest date that State can issue layoff notices after it submitted its plan to Congress.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/us-state-departments-planned-layoffs-may-violate-court-order-judge-says-2025-06-04/
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143464688
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143469050