Jared Serbu, Federal News Network, June 16, 2025
There has evidently been confusion about the scope of a federal judge’s order that barred agencies from carrying out reductions in force as part of the Trump administration’s governmentwide reorganization attempts. Friday brought at least some clarity on that front.
In an emergency motion earlier this month, attorneys for the federal union plaintiffs that filed the suit leading to the preliminary injunction argued that the State Department was poised to violate the court order with a reorganization plan that called for a 15-percent reduction in its U.S.-based staff. That plan directly violated the injunction because it was part of the Workforce Optimization Initiative, which the court order explicitly barred agencies from carrying out for the time being.
Judge Susan Illston agreed during a hearing on Friday, saying the preliminary injunction was clear and that she disagreed with the government’s position: that the planned RIFs were legal since they were planned separately under Secretary Marco Rubio’s independent authority and not as part of the governmentwide effort the injunction blocked.