California judge halts Trump’s mass layoffs of federal workers amid government shutdown

A federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown Wednesday, saying the government had “taken advantage” of the lapse in funding to conduct them.

Just days after the Office of Management and Budget announced roughly 4,100 federal workers had been given reduction-in-force notifications, District Judge Susan Illston ruled against the administration.

“The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore,” Illston said.

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