A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary pause on the Trump administration’s plans to restructure various government agencies and cut tens of thousands of federal workers because the government overhaul was not authorized by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston put a 14-day pause on the mass layoffs, siding with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments after they filed a lawsuit on April 28.
Illston said Trump may broadly restructure federal agencies, but only in “lawful ways” with approval from Congress.
“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 said. “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,” the judge continued. “Indeed, the Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime.”
Illston’s ruling was the broadest of its kind against administration efforts to overhaul