The Trump administration urged the US Supreme Court to allow federal agencies to layoff thousands of employees by halting a lower court order pausing the widespread workforce cuts.
In an emergency application filed Friday, the Justice Department argued that a California federal judge’s ruling is overbroad and irreparably harms the federal government.
“That far-reaching order bars almost the entire Executive Branch from formulating and implementing plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce, and requires disclosure of sensitive and deliberative agency documents that are presumptively protected by executive privilege,” the agency wrote. “It does all of that based on the extraordinary view that the President lacks authority to direct executive agencies how to exercise their statutory powers to conduct large-scale personnel actions within the Executive Branch.”
The case represents the most expansive legal dispute to date against the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government. Agencies such as the Health and Human Services and Labor departments and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have already laid off thousands of employees, while more reductions-in-force are planned.
The Supreme Court sided with Trump in similar disputes about downsizing the federal workforce. Last month, the court blocked a judge’s order for the administration to reinstate 16,000 probationary workers across six departments, saying the unions and nonprofits that sued the administration lacked standing.
The layoffs stem from to a Feb. 11 executive order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative, which was charged with eliminating “waste, bloat, and insularity” in the government.”
The cases are part of a broader campaign by Trump to expand his control over the federal workforce and reduce the size of government. The administration’s request came the same day a federal appeals court heard arguments over whether Trump has the authority to fire independent agency leaders protected by law from at-will dismissals, including Democratic National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board Member Cathy Harris.
Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said in her May 9 decision that the administration was barred temporarily from conducting layoffs and firings of government employees. Illston, a Clinton appointee, held that while the president has the authority to seek changes to executive agencies, he must include Congress in “large-scale reorganizations.”
AFGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is Trump v. AFGE, U.S., No. 24A, application filed 5/16/25.
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