A sign with a notice of closure is seen pinned on the fence to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 12, 2025. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) 

WASHINGTON —  The Trump administration cannot carry out layoffs that it announced after the government shutdown began Oct. 1 and is barred from issuing any new layoff notices under a court order issued Tuesday. 

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said at the end of an hour-long hearing in the Northern District of California she granted the preliminary injunction because the reductions in force are unlawful and “intended for the purpose of political retribution.”

Illston referenced a social media post by President Donald Trump that said, “I can’t believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

Michael Velchik, a Justice Department attorney representing the government, argued against the judge issuing a preliminary injunction. 

Velchik said statements from Trump and other administration officials were an expression of policy differences with Democrats and were not evidence of attempted political retribution. 

The hearing was the latest step in a lawsuit filed in late September. In the month since, attorneys for labor unions have contended the Trump administration’s actions violate federal law, while lawyers for the government have said it’s well within the scope of their authority. 

Illston, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, granted a temporary restraining order in mid-October that she clarified and expanded days later amid a misunderstanding within the administration about its impact.

Some layoffs planned pre-shutdown, government says

Illston said during Tuesday’s hearing that she’s likely to schedule an evidentiary hearing over claims that some layoff notices that have gone out during the shutdown were planned before it began, and shouldn’t be subject to any court orders in this lawsuit. 

Danielle Leonard, an attorney representing the labor unions that brought the case, said she believed that type of hearing could help all involved “get to the heart of” the disagreement. 

Leonard requested the preliminary injunction cover employees at the Interior Department, Commerce Department’s patent office and the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights from layoffs until after the judge scheduled that evidentiary hearing. 

Illston didn’t respond directly to that proposal, but said she planned to release a written version of the preliminary injunction she issued from the bench as soon as Tuesday. 

Illston said the injunction didn’t apply to employees at the Small Business Administration who received layoff notices in late September, before the shutdown began. 

Velchik contended that layoff notices issued since the shutdown began were well within the administration’s authority, saying the country does not “have a fossilized executive branch where we cannot reduce the size.”

Velchik also told the judge that efforts to lay off federal employees during the shutdown were “the right thing to do, morally. And it’s the democratic thing to do.”