President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The nation’s largest federation of labor unions is seeking an emergency status conference to discuss the Trump administration’s “apparent noncompliance” with a federal judge’s preliminary injunction barring officials from carrying out large-scale reductions in force.
According to the plaintiffs, the AFL-CIO, they have received reports that at least two federal agencies — the State Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — have “continued to implement” President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14210 despite U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s preliminary injunction barring them from doing so.
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The February executive order, titled “Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Cost Efficiency Initiative,” ordered each agency to “conduct a comprehensive review” of their “contracting policies, procedures, and personnel,” as well as root out “waste, fraud, and abuse.” DOGE began accessing government data, reorganizing agencies, and laying off federal employees they deemed superfluous.
On May 9, however, Illston granted a request from the plaintiffs for a temporary restraining order (TRO), and then, about two weeks later, issued a preliminary injunction, finding that the three agencies principally tasked with the firings and reorganization — the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and DOGE — lacked the requisite statutory authority to carry out these tasks.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in and lift the injunction after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay the order in a 2-1 vote last week.
Now, the law groups, including the Democracy Forward Foundation and Altshuler Berzon LLP, are accusing the administration of skirting Illston’s order — saying the White House is arguing the State Department and HUD are acting of their own volition and that their actions are not part of Trump’s executive order on which Illston, a Clinton employee serving in the Northern District of California, ruled.
The plaintiffs wrote on Tuesday:
“The State Department has given notice to Congress that it is continuing to implement the reorganization plan (announced April 22, 2025) that was the subject of Plaintiffs’ TRO and preliminary injunction motions, and which was specifically referenced by this Court’s preliminary injunction order. Specifically, last week the State Department announced that it intends to shortly issue widespread RIF notices to effectuate this reorganization, and counsel for Defendants has taken the new position that this reorganization is not, in fact, covered by this Court’s injunction.”
They also claimed that “with respect to HUD, probationary employees have been re-terminated in furtherance of the HUD reduction in workforce efforts, again, after this Court’s injunctive orders.” They further alleged that the Department of Health and Human Services placed employees on administrative leave or conducted other off-boarding actions after Illston’s TRO and preliminary injunction.
The plaintiffs maintain that they tried to “resolve” their complaints with the defendants “informally” but to no avail. As such, they want a status conference to “address [the] urgent issues” posed by a believed resistance to a federal judge’s order.
“With respect to State and HUD, however, Defendants have acknowledged the actions that Plaintiffs contend conflict with the preliminary injunction, but are taking the position that they are not covered by this Court’s orders,” they wrote. “Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court hold a status conference as soon as possible this week, so the parties may address how to resolve disputes regarding State Department and HUD actions subsequent to the Court’s orders.”
Law&Crime reached out to the State Department and HUD for comment.
