(Reuters) -A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to halt mass layoffs during a partial government shutdown while she considers claims by unions that the job cuts are illegal.
During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a request by two unions to block layoffs at more than 30 agencies pending further litigation.
Her ruling came shortly after White House Budget Director Russell Vought said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that more than 10,000 federal workers could lose their jobs because of the shutdown, which entered its 15th day on Wednesday.
Illston at the hearing cited a series of public statements by Trump and Vought that she said showed explicit political motivations for the layoffs, such as Trump saying that cuts would target “Democrat agencies.”
“You can’t do that in a nation of laws. And we have laws here, and the things that are being articulated here are not within the law,” said Illston, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
Illston said she agreed with the unions that the administration was unlawfully using the lapse in government funding that began October 1 to carry out its agenda of downsizing the federal government.
A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer, Elizabeth Hedges, said she was not prepared to address Illston’s concerns about the legality of the layoffs. She instead argued that the unions must bring their claims to a federal labor board before going to court.
The White House said last week that it had begun substantial layoffs across the U.S. government, as Trump followed through on a threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown.
About 4,100 workers at eight agencies have been notified that they are being laid off so far, according to a Tuesday court filing by the administration.
The American Federation of Government Employees and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees claim that implementing layoffs is not an essential service that can be performed during a lapse in government funding, and that the shutdown does not justify mass job cuts because most federal workers have been furloughed without pay.
Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress but need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate, where Democrats are holding out for an extension of health-insurance subsidies. Democrats have said they will not cave to Trump’s pressure tactics.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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