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A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sweeping overhaul of the federal government. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, came after a hearing Friday in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments. The plaintiffs argue in their complaint that President Trump's efforts to "radically restructure and dismantle the federal government" without any authorization from Congress violate the Constitution. Illston agreed with the plaintiffs, asserting in the hearing that Supreme Court precedent makes clear that while the president does have the authority to seek changes...

A federal judge on Friday issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) 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. “It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must...

A federal judge will temporarily block President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting billions in federal dollars that support COVID-19 initiatives and public health projects throughout the country. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, appointed by Trump in 2019 but first nominated by former President Barack Obama, in Rhode Island said Thursday that she plans to grant the court order sought by 23 states and the District of Columbia.“They make a case, a strong case, for the fact that they will succeed on the merits, so I’m going to grant the temporary restraining order,” said McElroy, who plans to issue a written...

A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday that stops the Trump administration from pulling back more than $11 billion in public health funding from state and local health departments. Judge Mary McElroy of the federal district court in Rhode Island granted a 14-day restraining order to a group of 23 states and the District of Columbia that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week. “The likelihood of success on the merits is extremely strong,” McElroy said at the conclusion of the brief hearing, noting that “the record is voluminous …...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy. U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce. Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to “immediately” offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back. The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made...

March 13 (Reuters) - A California federal judge on Thursday ordered six U.S. agencies to reinstate thousands of recently-hired employees who were fired as part of President Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce. The ruling made by U.S. District Judge William Alsup during a hearing in San Francisco applies to the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Interior and the Treasury Department.

All of Maine’s federal judges recuse themselves from Rep. Laurel Libby’s lawsuit against House speaker None of the judges gave any reasoning for the recusals and the Republican state lawmaker's case will now be considered by a judge in Rhode Island. All of Maine’s active federal judges have recused themselves from a Republican state lawmaker’s lawsuit against the Speaker of the House. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, and six of her constituents filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Tuesday in response to Libby’s party-line censure by the Legislature last month. Democrats argued Libby crossed a line by...

The Trump administration could be sanctioned by a federal judge later this week after lawyers with the Department of Justice advised a federal judge Tuesday evening that they will not make a top administration official available for sworn testimony. U.S. District Judge Charles Alsup had sought to have the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Charles Ezell, testify on Thursday about the mass firing of probationary employees. But the DOJ said Tuesday that they would not make Ezell available for testimony. By making Ezell unavailable, DOJ attorneys also withdrew his sworn affidavit, a move that Judge Charles...

A federal judge said Tuesday that the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi flag is "anti-American" because it represents those who fought to leave the United States. But U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves is not yet saying whether he will fully consider a lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the flag as a state symbol. Reeves heard more than three hours of arguments about motions in the lawsuit that Carlos Moore, an African-American attorney from Grenada, Mississippi, filed against the state. Moore is asking Reeves to declare the flag an unconstitutional relic of slavery.

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn’t need to immediately return more than $80 million that it took away from New York City last month in a dispute over funding for sheltering migrants. Judge Jennifer H. Rearden in Manhattan declined to issue a temporary restraining order, saying the city had failed to prove it will suffer irreparable harm. The city’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump and other federal defendants was expected to proceed as New York seeks a preliminary injunction. The city sued the Trump administration on Feb. 21 after FEMA clawed back grant...

The Supreme Court must intervene. A federal judge on Tuesday granted a permanent injunction reinstating a Biden-appointed chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). “The mission of the MSPB is to “Protect the Merit System Principles and promote an effective Federal workforce free of Prohibited Personnel Practices.”” the agency’s website says. Cathy Harris was appointed to the MSPB in 2021 and her term was set to expire on March 1, 2028, but Trump fired her last month. Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee with a history of anti-Trump bias, said Trump’s decision to fire Cathy Harris, a member of...

A federal judge has blocked a Maine law requiring a three-day waiting period to buy a firearm in response to a legal challenge filed by gun dealers who argue the restrictions are unconstitutional. The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker sided with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Gun Owners of Maine and several gun sellers who filed a lawsuit last year alleging the law requiring people to wait 72 hours to acquire a firearm — even if they pass a required criminal background check. Walker's ruling temporarily blocks the law while he considers the legal challenge. "Citizens wishing...

Topline A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s buyout offer to federal civilian employees from taking effect Thursday, hours before the deadline the administration set for more than 2 million employees to decide whether to take resignation packages with pay through September. Timeline Feb. 6: A federal judge in Massachusetts pushed back the deadline for employees to accept the offer, initially set for 11:59 p.m. Thursday, until at least Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by federal workers unions that argued the administration could not guarantee pay beyond March 14 expiration date for the existing budget. Feb. 5:...

A federal judge paused Thursday’s deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer while more proceedings on the program’s legality play out. The government will send a notice to the employees informing them that Thursday’s deadline is on hold. Before the judge’s ruling, eligible federal workers had until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday to decide whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will generally allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September. The pause stems from a lawsuit that the American Federation of Government Employees and several...

With just hours remaining for federal workers to decide whether to take the Trump administration's offer to resign from their jobs now while keeping their pay and benefits through Sept. 30, a federal judge in Massachusetts will weigh a request from labor unions to issue a temporary restraining order and stay today's deadline. U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, will preside over a virtual hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. The lawsuit, filed by the legal group Democracy Forward on behalf of unions representing more than 800,000 civil servants, alleges that the Trump administration's resignation offer...

The Corporate Transparency Act, which requires businesses to disclose ownership information, was blocked by a federal judge as beyond Congress’s authority.The Supreme Court on Thursday revived a federal law requiring companies to report information about their owners in an effort to combat money laundering, the drug trade and terrorism.The court’s brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. The ruling was provisional, reinstating the law while a challenge to it moves forward.Critics say that the law, the Corporate Transparency Act of 2021, is needlessly burdensome, a threat to privacy and an unconstitutional federal...

A federal judge in Texas ruled against American Airlines after the company centered employee retirement plans on environmental, social, and governance factors, also known as ESG. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor concluded on Jan. 10 that American Airlines failed to exercise its fiduciary duty to make investment decisions for retirement accounts based on the best interests of the beneficiaries, according to a report from Reuters. O’Connor added that American Airlines had inappropriate ties to BlackRock, the asset management behemoth which has long been a leading advocate for the ESG investing movement. ... The evidence made clear that [American’s] incestuous relationship...

A federal appeals court decided this week to allow Davina Ricketts, a former North Carolina high school student, to continue pursuing her racial discrimination lawsuit against the Wake County Public School System, its board of education, and numerous school officials. Ricketts alleges that school and district officials did not intervene and were “deliberately indifferent” to the racial harassment and cyberbullying she endured from other students during and after a student council election in 2016.... When election day came, Ricketts discovered her name and the names of the other three Black candidates were not on the junior class ballot. The omission...

ESG investments tend to underperform traditional funds by approximately 10 percent, the judge observed.A district court has ruled that American Airlines failed to prioritize the financial interests of its employees’ retirement funds by enabling fund managers to pursue environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments.The judgment came as part of a 2023 lawsuit filed against American Airlines and the company’s Employee Benefits Committee. The class action alleges that the defendants violated their duty of loyalty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which states that fiduciaries managing retirement investments must act in the best financial interest of the participants.The defendants are...

Within one month of each other, two federal judges ruled that a law passed by Congress is “likely unconstitutional” and ruled in favor of small businesses. At issue is the Corporate Transparency Act, which Congress passed in 2021, overriding a veto issued by then President Donald Trump. The law requires entities incorporated under state law to disclose the personal information of their stakeholders, including current address, identification documents, and other sensitive information, to the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. After Trump’s veto was overridden, several small businesses in Texas sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, arguing the...