The U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 1, 2025, with a sign indicating that the Capitol Visitors Center is closed due to the government shutdown. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday clarified and expanded a preliminary injunction she issued earlier this week blocking the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston said during an emergency hearing that the injunction affects all agencies whose employees are members of the unions that filed the lawsuit or are in collective bargaining units.
The Trump administration’s decision not to recognize those union activities under a previous executive order does not mean an agency can issue layoff notices, she said.
Illston, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, specifically said that the Interior and Health and Human Services departments must comply with the TRO and not issue reductions in force (RIFs).
“It’s not complicated,” Illston said. “During this time, these agencies should not conduct RIFs against the protected individuals we are talking about.”
She also added the National Federation of Federal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the National Association of Government Employees, Inc. to the lawsuit and injunction.
As the shutdown that began Oct. 1 continues with no end in sight, administration officials said they would freeze $11 billion in Army Corps of Engineers projects and furlough employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s energy division.
Unions argue that the administration is ignoring part of the court order
The California case was originally filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Danielle Leonard, an attorney representing those unions, said during the hearing that the Trump administration “interpreted the scope of the TRO too narrowly and ignored some of the language in the TRO.”
Leonard pointed to a brief filed by the Department of Health and Human Services that said the agency had not issued layoff notices to workers covered by the TRO, even though a previous filing with the court said HHS had sent notices to 982 workers.
Leonard said that department appears to be taking the position that a previous order had ended all union representation at HHS.
“The government is well aware that this is a contentious issue,” Leonard said.
Elizabeth Hedges, a lawyer for the Trump administration, said after much back and forth that she disagreed with Leonard and the judge’s interpretation of the injunction’s impact.
“I would argue that that’s not what the TRO says,” Hedges said, but later told the judge she would make sure the administration followed the updated declaration of the injunction.
Hedges also told the judge that the Home Office had not previously disclosed that it was considering layoffs because officials began considering these RIFs before the shutdown and would only implement them during the shutdown because it had been going on for so long.
The judge ordered the Trump administration to notify the court at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Monday of any actual or impending layoff notices within the full scope of the injunction.
Army Corps stops billion-dollar projects in major cities
White House budget director Russ Vought announced hours before the emergency court hearing that the administration plans to freeze and possibly unilaterally eliminate billions more in funding approved by Congress.
“The Democratic shutdown has impacted the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage billions of dollars in projects,” Vought wrote in a social media post. “The Corps will immediately pause and consider cancellation of lower priority projects valued at over $11 billion, including projects in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore. More information to come from the Army Corps of Engineers.”
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has repeatedly accused the Trump administration of failing to spend funds approved by Congress as lawmakers intended.
Generally, after Congress approves a spending bill and it becomes law, the president is expected to faithfully implement its provisions.
Any president who wants to cancel funding already approved by the legislature must send a withdrawal request to Congress, which gives members a 45-day period to approve, modify or ignore the request.
The Trump administration took this legal route earlier this year when it asked Congress to cut billions in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and development aid.
The House of Representatives and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, agreed to the request after senators secured full funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
The White House Budget Office I have submitted another cancellation request At the end of August, he called on lawmakers to cancel billions in additional spending on foreign aid programs.
Neither chamber has taken action to approve this request, but Vought believes he will be allowed to cancel this funding without congressional action because it was filed within the last 45 days of the fiscal year.
The GAO and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, have both called the maneuver, known as a pocket resign, unlawful.
Nuclear security employees should be furloughed
The Trump administration also announced Friday that more than 1,000 National Nuclear Security Administration employees would walk off work for the remainder of the shutdown, joining hundreds of thousands of others on furlough. Accordingly his websiteThe mission of the NNSA is “to ensure that the United States has a safe and reliable nuclear stockpile through the use of unparalleled science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing.”
A Department of Energy spokesperson wrote in an email to States Newsroom that “approximately 1,400 NNSA federal employees will be furloughed beginning Monday, October 20, and nearly 400 NNSA federal employees will continue to work to protect property and keep lives safe. NNSA’s Office of Secure Transportation will remain funded through October 27, 2025.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the spokesman said, “will be in Las Vegas, Nevada and at the National Nuclear Security Site on Monday to further discuss the shutdown’s impact on America’s nuclear deterrent.”
During previous closures, both federal employees who were required to continue working and those who went on furlough received back pay. But Trump and government officials have signaled that they might try to reinterpret it a 2019 law that allows back pay for all federal employees once Congress passes a funding bill and reopens the government.
