Federal Appeals Court Halts Trump’s Sweeping Federal Layoffs

(MENAFN) A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday halted President Donald Trump’s plan for sweeping layoffs across federal agencies, ruling that his executive order authorizing the cuts oversteps constitutional limits, a news outlet reported.

In a 2-1 ruling, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s injunction that had paused the layoffs—officially called reductions in force (RIFs)—since May 9. The court determined that Trump did not have the necessary congressional authorization to enforce such broad personnel cuts.

Senior Circuit Judge William Fletcher, delivering the majority opinion, declared the executive order “far exceeds the President’s supervisory powers,” stressing that “the kind of reorganization contemplated by the order has long been subject to Congressional approval.”

The legal challenge came from a coalition of federal employees and labor organizations opposing the administration’s plan to overhaul nearly every Cabinet-level department, including Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Interior, Labor, State, and Treasury.

The coalition hailed the ruling as “a victory in our efforts to pause these harmful actions while our case moves forward.”

White House spokesman Harrison Fields condemned the court’s decision, asserting, “A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch.” He vowed that the administration would persist with its legal battle.

This appellate ruling follows a previous decision by US District Judge Susan Illston, who also ruled that Trump lacked authority to conduct mass layoffs without legislative approval.

After the district court’s injunction, the Trump administration appealed to the 9th Circuit and earlier sought Supreme Court intervention, which declined to hear the case.

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