A U.S. federal judge has extended an injunction preventing the Trump administration from laying off thousands of federal workers, temporarily stymieing the White House’s latest attempt to shrink the government’s workforce.
Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed to lay off thousands of federal workers, targeting government agencies with climate-related missions like NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency for deep cuts. An initial wave of layoffs hit NOAA in February, when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – then led by billionaire Elon Musk – fired hundreds of staffers, with others encouraged to take a buyout. According to documents collected by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), NOAA Fisheries lost 545 employees between the layoffs and buyouts.
The White House has continued to push for cuts.
The Trump administration proposed cutting 2,000 NOAA employees in its official fiscal year 2026 budget request, and it has used the ongoing government shutdown as an excuse to make more cuts. Before the shutdown began, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought told agencies they could issue reduction-in-force (RIF) notices to employees who don’t align with “the President’s priorities.” While the federal government typically furloughs nonessential employees during a government shutdown, it’s unusual for the government to lay off workers.
Vought suggested that the government could ultimately lay off 10,000 workers during the shutdown, and an 14 October court filing reported that roughly 600 U.S. Department of Commerce employees were issued RIF notices at the beginning of the month. A government employee union challenged the firing in court, and on 15 October, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Yvonne Illston issued a temporary restraining order to block the firings.
“This is unprecedented in our country’s history,” Illston said in her opinion. “It is also 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.”
Following an 28 October hearing, Illston extended the injunction on issuing more or enforcing the already issued reduction-in-force notices. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) celebrated the court victory, which pauses the Trump administration’s plans until the lawsuit is concluded.
“President Trump is using the government shutdown as a pretense to illegally fire thousands of federal workers – specifically those employees carrying out programs and policies that the administration finds objectionable. We thank the court for keeping in place its order preventing the administration from firing workers due to the shutdown while we continue our litigation in court,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a release.
In her order, Illston called the administration’s RIF process “chaos” while noting that “the administration has publicly announced that these RIFs are intended to punish the Democrats.”
“If what plaintiffs allege is true, the agencies’ actions in laying off thousands of public employees – and in targeting those from a particular political party – during a government shutdown is the epitome of hasty, arbitrary, and capricious decision-making,” she stated.
Lawmakers and former officials have warned that the cuts at NOAA Fisheries are impacting the agency’s missions already, with fisheries biologists and experts targeted during the cuts.
“We are losing an entire generation of scientists and leaders,” Elizabeth Lewis, a senior associate attorney with Eubanks & Associates, testified before a Congressional hearing in April. “That, to me, is the devastating human cost. These are scientists, for the most part. They just want to do their work. The culture has gone from one of general support at a quality federal agency to one of real fear.”
According to CBD, more than half of the workers fired from NOAA Fisheries worked directly in marine ecosystems and wildlife.
“The Trump administration’s disdain for whales, dolphins, and our entire natural world is hitting the oceans hard,” CBD Oceans Director Miyoko Sakashita told SeafoodSource earlier in October. “Targeting the people who work to keep sea creatures like salmon and sea otters healthy will backfire in disastrous ways, as we get less and less prepared for climate chaos. The loss of this marine wildlife expertise is incalculable.”
