Court orders to Trump and Elon Musk to stop federal layoffs immediately
A federal judge in San Francisco has granted Donald Trump and Elon Musk the emergency pause they wanted. On Friday, Senior US District Judge Susan Illston issued a court order that blocks Trump’s executive plan to lay off thousands of federal workers.
This came after a February directive from the White House, signed by Trump, called for a massive shake-up of the federal workforce, one that would shut down agencies and force early retirements across multiple departments. The order was about to go live, but the court just hit the brakes—hard.
The ruling stalls the administration’s move to fire workers at Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, State, Treasury, and Transportation, just days before the layoffs were set to begin. Illston said the government can’t skip the legal steps. She made it clear Trump does have the power to restructure agencies, but only by following the rules, and when it involves large cuts, Congress has to be involved.
