A federal judge on Oct. 28 indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the ongoing federal government shutdown.

San Francisco-based Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California orally issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the job reductions from happening while a lawsuit brought by labor unions challenging the firings continues to play out.

The judge had issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 15 blocking the firings. In the same order, she had scheduled a hearing for Oct. 28 on whether to upgrade the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction.

Illston did not explain in a brief new docket entry why she was granting the injunction, but she indicated that a formal written order would soon follow.

The judge said in court that the new injunction prevents federal agencies from sending out layoff notices or acting on notices issued since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. She noted that the injunction does not cover notices sent before the shutdown got underway.

The injunction covers members of the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the National Federation of Federal Employees; the Service Employees International Union; and the National Association of Government Employees.

At the Oct. 15 hearing, Illston described the layoff plan as “politically motivated” and “arbitrary and capricious.” She cited President Donald Trump’s own comments calling the firings “Democrat-oriented” and said the government was acting as if “the laws don’t apply” to it anymore.

In the order she issued that day, the judge said federal agencies laying off thousands of employees while a government shutdown was underway was “unprecedented in [the] country’s history.”

Attorneys for the federal government argued that the federal district court lacked authority to hear personnel-related challenges and that the president has wide authority to cut the federal workforce, as he promised to do during the 2024 election campaign.

“The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that ‘you’re fired,'” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Velchik said at the Oct. 28 hearing. “This is what they voted for.”

“You’re fired” is a catchphrase that Trump routinely used when he hosted the reality television series “The Apprentice.”

The head of the American Federation of Government Employees said the layoffs constituted an abuse of power and are intended to punish workers and apply pressure to Congress.

“[Trump is using the shutdown] as a pretense to illegally fire thousands of federal workers—specifically those employees carrying out programs and policies that the administration finds objectionable,” the union’s national president, Everett Kelley, said in a statement.

It is unclear if the federal government will appeal the new injunction.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Tom Ozimek and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Oct 28, 2025, in The Epoch Times. It was updated Nov. 4, 2025.