On October 15, 2025, Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the Trump administration from unlawfully engaging in mass layoffs of federal workers due to the government shutdown. The court held that the layoffs likely violate the Administrative Procedure Act, noting that the agencies’ actions were “the epitome of hasty, arbitrary and capricious decisionmaking.” Judge Illston also wrote that it is “far from normal for an administration to fire line-level civilian employees during a government shutdown as a way to punish the opposing political party. But this is precisely what President Trump has announced he is doing.”
The TRO initially covered federal employees in any program, project, or activity that included a bargaining unit or member represented by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), or certain local affiliates. On October 17, 2025, the TRO was expanded to cover three new unions: the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE). The TRO was expanded again on October 22, 2025, to include the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO (IFPTE), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
The Plaintiffs are represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP, Democracy Forward, and Democracy Defenders Fund. The Court’s October 15th TRO can be found here. The Court’s October 17th and October 22nd orders expanding the TRO can be found here and here, respectively.