(Adnkronos) – A federal judge in California has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Trump administration from proceeding with the layoffs of federal employees justified by the shutdown. “The activities being undertaken are contrary to the law, this cannot be done in a state of law,” said Judge Susan Yvonne, accepting the request from two unions to block the layoffs, which the White House began last week.
Illston practically said that the Trump administration wants to take advantage of the shutdown to advance its agenda, “exploiting the pause in government spending and operation to assume that laws no longer apply and that they can impose the structures they want on a government situation they dislike.” The judge then expressed the belief that the plaintiffs will be able to demonstrate that the Trump administration’s actions are illegal and constitute an “arbitrary” abuse of authority.
The judge said her restraining order has immediate effect. In recent days, the administration had notified the court that it had already laid off 4,000 federal employees.
