A judge temporarily barred the Trump administration from laying off federal employees during the shutdown, saying the firings come at « a human cost. »
A judge in San Francisco on Wednesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from laying off federal employees during the shutdown, saying the firings come at “a human cost.”
US District Judge Susan Illston said during a hearing Wednesday in San Francisco federal court that the planned job cuts of thousands of government workers seemed to be politically motivated, poorly planned and would damage lives.
“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” said Illston — an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
Illston pressed government lawyers during Wednesday’s hearing about why the administration was taking the drastic step while furloughed employees didn’t have access to their work email accounts and there weren’t human resource employees currently available to implement the layoffs.
