A federal judge in San Francisco just threw a wrench into Donald Trump’s plan to gut the federal workforce during the government shutdown. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued a temporary restraining order halting the administration from firing thousands of federal employees until the court can decide whether the move is legal.
The order came five days after more than 4,000 government workers received termination notices under a “reduction in force” directive from the Trump administration. The timing and intent didn’t sit well with the court.
“You can’t do this in a nation of laws,” Judge Illston told administration lawyers during the hearing. “We have laws here, and what’s being done is not within the law.”
The case escalated after Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought publicly stated that the layoffs were aimed at “Democrat agencies” and programs they wanted to eliminate. Illston called the comments evidence that the administration was “taking advantage of the shutdown to impose structures they like on parts of government they don’t.”
Unions representing tens of thousands of federal workers filed the lawsuit, accusing the administration of acting illegally, arbitrarily, and without legitimate cause. The judge agreed there was enough proof that the firings were politically motivated and potentially unlawful.
Trump officials appeared unfazed. Just hours before the ruling, Vought told “The Charlie Kirk Show” that more than 10,000 jobs could be cut as part of what he described as “a government reset.” That statement quickly made its way into court arguments.
Illston’s decision came on the fifteenth day of the shutdown, as the Senate failed once again to pass a short-term funding bill for the ninth time. The political standoff has already frozen paychecks and stalled key federal services across the country. Now, Trump’s own shutdown strategy faces a serious legal test.
Democracy Forward, the advocacy group representing the unions, celebrated the ruling as a win for accountability.
“The President seems to think this shutdown gives him cover to break the law,” said CEO Skye Perryman. “But the courts are reminding him that power does not erase legality. Our civil servants work for the people, not his political agenda.”
Perryman also connected the layoffs to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint calling for a massive reshaping of the federal government. “This isn’t about saving money,” she said. “It’s about political control, and that is not how democracy works.”
For now, the judge’s order prevents the administration from firing any more workers. The next hearing will determine whether Trump’s plan to strip down the federal government stands or falls as another overreach that crossed the legal line.