Judge Declines to Freeze Trump's Mass Layoffs

A federal judge on Thursday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration's mass layoff of federal workers while a lawsuit brought by five unions moves forward, the AP reports. US District Judge Christopher Cooper found the unions must bring their claims under federal employment law rather than in district court. Cooper did not rule on the issues but said, per the Hill, "The Court acknowledges that district court review of these sweeping executive actions may be more expedient. But [National Treasury Employees Union, one of the bodies that brought the suit] provides no reason why it could not seek relief from the [Federal Labor Relations Authority] on behalf of a class of plaintiffs and admits that it would ask other agencies to follow an administrative judge's ruling in its favor."

The union groups representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers argue Trump's efforts to slash the workforce conflicts with Congress' power to shape the size and direction of agencies through funding decisions, as well as laws detailing exactly how such layoffs must be carried out. Attorneys for the Trump administration say the unions failed to show that they were facing the kind of irreparable, immediate harm that would justify an emergency order stopping layoffs.

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