FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Matt Dorsey
(202) 550-6987
December 17, 2025
San Francisco, Calif. – A federal judge has indicated she will order the Trump-Vance administration to nullify the terminations of federal employees at four federal agencies, which were implemented in clear violation of the bipartisan law that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. In a hearing today, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for Northern California agreed with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) that Section 120 of the continuing resolution passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump on November 12, 2025, prohibits federal agencies from initiating, implementing, or carrying out any reduction-in-force (RIF) for the duration of the law, which currently runs through January 30, 2026.
Judge Illston’s order from the bench, which is expected in writing later today, will force the Trump-Vance administration to rescind RIFs issued to civil servants at the Small Business Administration, General Services Administration, and U.S. State Department who received RIF notices that were implemented or carried out during and after the government shutdown. The order also forces the administration to halt planned RIFs at the U.S. Departments of Education and State. AFGE and AFSA previously secured a temporary restraining order to block 250 terminations at the Department of State that were set to take effect on December 5.
The order is an important milestone in an ongoing lawsuit brought by a coalition of unions challenging the administration’s unlawful mass firings of federal employees during or because of the government shutdown. A preliminary injunction is similarly blocking those firings. AFGE, AFSA, and NFFE are represented in this action by Democracy Forward, Altshuler Berzon LLP, and Democracy Defenders Fund.
“On behalf of approximately 110,000 blue and white collar government workers across the United States, and our members at GSA, NFFE is committed to ensuring our members are treated fairly and not unlawfully fired,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “As the first federal employee union in the United States, we know that federal employees are responsible for work depended on by millions of Americans, and that this decision will mean these diligent federal workers will not be unlawfully forced out of their jobs. We are deeply grateful for this decision and for the partnership of the other Plaintiffs in this case.”