Free Republic

The Trump administration violated federal law when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slashed the workforce for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a court ruled this week. In a 32-page order on cross motions for summary judgment, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Bill Clinton appointee, found DHS "unlawfully usurped the authority" of FEMA "to make its own personnel decisions" with reductions in force (RIFs) throughout 2025. The original litigation, however, was much broader in scope. In April 2025, several unions led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) sued over what they termed "the unconstitutional dismantling of...

A federal judge in California has halted the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) Hub, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC). In a June 13 order, US District Judge Susan Illston declared that the planned elimination of the unit, part of a broader push by the administration to downsize the federal government, violates an earlier injunction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have prematurely celebrated the end of R-FIMI back in April when he said the censorship unit was “dead.” Despite his announcement, legal barriers remain in place, preserving...

A federal judge on Friday turned a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) into a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to overhaul and reorganize 20 agencies in the Executive Branch. In February, President Trump implemented an executive order to completely overhaul the Executive Branch through the work of DOGE. US District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, said in order for President Trump to make such large-scale overhauls, he needs approval from Congress. Judge Illston blocked any reduction-in-force (RIF) notices to workers in 20 federal agencies.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt mass layoffs of federal workers for at least two weeks in a temporary restraining order issued Friday.A coalition of local governments, nonprofit organizations and labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, filed a lawsuit last month challenging an executive order issued Feb. 11 that instructed federal agency heads to prepare large-scale reductions in workforce.The AFGE-led coalition had argued that the president does not have the power to make that order. Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...