BREAKING: Federal judge blocks Trump admin from issuing layoffs during gov shutdown

"The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws," Illston wrote. "You can’t do this in a nation of laws." She said that the administration had "taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore, and they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don’t like," per NBC News.

Illston wrote in her order that the administration was acting without thinking. "It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated," per the Associated Press.

Labor unions had requested that the judge temporarily block the administration from issuing new layoff notices and implementing those already sent out. The unions claimed that the layoffs were an abuse of power, aimed both at punishing workers and pressuring Congress, which has yet to pass legislation that would reopen the government.

Ahead of the end of September, when government funding lapsed, the White House Office of Management and Budget sent out a memo to agencies stating, "Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown, and we must continue our planning efforts in the event Democrats decide to shut down the government. If Congress successfully passes a clean CR prior to September 30, the additional steps outlined in this email will not be necessary."

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