The judge had previously blocked the layoffs temporarily in an Oct. 15 order.
A federal judge on Oct. 28 indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the ongoing federal government shutdown.
San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston orally issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the job reductions from happening while a lawsuit brought by labor unions challenging the firings continues to play out.
The judge had issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 15 blocking the firings. In the same order, she had scheduled a hearing for Oct. 28 on whether to upgrade the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction.
Illston did not explain in a brief new docket entry why she was granting the injunction but indicated a formal written order will soon follow.
The judge said in court that the new injunction prevents federal agencies from sending out layoff notices or acting on notices issued since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. She added that the injunction does not cover notices sent before the shutdown got underway.
The injunction covers members of the American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees, Service Employees International Union, and National Association of Government Employees.
At the Oct. 15 hearing, Illston described the layoff plan as “politically motivated” and “arbitrary and capricious.” She cited President Donald Trump’s own comments calling the firings “Democrat-oriented,” and said the government was acting as if “the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”
In the order she issued that day, the judge said that federal agencies laying off thousands of employees while a government shutdown was underway was “unprecedented in our country’s history.”
Attorneys for the federal government argued the federal district court lacked authority to hear personnel-related challenges, and that the president has wide authority to cut the federal workforce as he promised to do during the last election campaign.
“The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that ‘you’re fired.’ This is what they voted for,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Velchik said at the Oct. 28 hearing.
“You’re fired” is a catchphrase Trump routinely used when he hosted the reality television series, “The Apprentice.”
