A federal judge has ordered the Agriculture Department and 20 other federal agencies to halt reorganization efforts for two weeks after finding that their downsizing attempts likely stem from unlawful Trump Administration orders.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California found that the plaintiffs — a mix of unions, professional groups, and trade organizations — are likely to succeed on their claim that President Donald Trump went beyond his authority in issuing an executive order to reform the federal workforce without first getting approval from Congress.
In her order issued Friday, she also said the Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Management and Budget and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency lack authority to direct any other agency "to engage in large-scale terminations, restructuring, or elimination of itself."
The judge told the agencies not to approve any further reduction-in-force and reorganization plans while the restraining order is in effect, or to follow any orders from DOGE to cut programs or staff.
While Illston emphasized that she has not yet ruled on whether challenges to reorganization plans of individual agencies "are likely to succeed" on Administrative Procedure Act claims brought by the plaintiffs, she added that she found it necessary to "enjoin further implementation of those plans because they flow from likely illegal directives."
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Illston set May 23 as the final date for the restraining order. She said the pause is meant to stop large-scale reductions in force to give President Trump time to work with Congress "to order the changes he seeks."
"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," Illston wrote. "Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it. Nothing prevents the president from requesting this cooperation — as he did in his prior term of office."
Agencies affected by the order include the Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments, as well as AmeriCorps, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration.
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