Judge criticizes Trump

A federal judge in San Francisco is blocking President Donald Trump from laying off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown, calling the administration’s attempt at a mass layoff “political retaliation.”

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco said Tuesday that unions representing federal employees would likely prove that the job cuts were illegal. Although the White House may still prevail in the long run, Illston’s preliminary injunction indefinitely suspends the firings while the underlying case plays out in court.

The Trump administration had promised to lay off federal workers en masse if Democrats stood firm in their funding fight with congressional Republicans. They attempted to follow through on that threat with a series of “reductions in force,” or RIFs, that were announced on October 10 and covered approximately 4,000 workers.

Illston previously issued a temporary restraining order in the case to prevent Trump from moving forward with the firings.

Unions have argued that the White House does not have the legal authority to implement RIF while the government is underfunded. They have also said the firings are clearly retaliatory.

via News

In fact, Trump boasted of cutting “Democratic” programs and agencies, and described the shutdown as an opportunity to further attack the federal workforce.

“We are being able to do things that we couldn’t do before,” the president saying October 14. “So we’re closing programs that are Democratic programs that we wanted to close or never wanted to happen. And now we’re closing them and we’re not going to let them come back.”

Illston described the firings as “political retribution” during a court hearing Tuesday, according to Federal News Network.

Eight unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, took the administration to court in hopes of blocking the layoffs. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, said in a statement Tuesday that the attempted firings were a “cruel act” of retaliation by the White House.

“It shows their complete and utter disregard for workers who have dedicated their careers to helping their fellow Americans,” Weingarten said. “That is why the court decided to hold the administration accountable for its blatantly unconstitutional actions.”