BREAKING: Rogue Judge BLOCKS President Trump from Firing Federal Workers During Shutdown

Another radical left-wing activist judge just interfered with President Trump’s ability to carry out his mandate to the American people.

Today, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston — a Clinton appointee — ruled to block President Trump from firing federal employees during the government shutdown.

Here are the details:

🚨 JUST NOW: Judge Susan Illston hereby BLOCKS President Trump from firing federal employees while Democrats have the government shut down.

Holy crap. She thinks she's President of the United States.

We have a huge judicial tyranny problem and it reveals itself every week at… pic.twitter.com/sW0EJ5f2fs

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 15, 2025

🚨 JUST NOW: Judge Susan Illston hereby BLOCKS President Trump from firing federal employees while Democrats have the government shut down.

Holy crap. She thinks she’s President of the United States.

We have a huge judicial tyranny problem and it reveals itself every week at this point.

IGNORE, APPEAL and KEEP FIRING!

BREAKING: Everybody, meet District Court Judge Susan Illston, who has just issued a ruling trying to BLOCK the Trump Administration from firing people during a shutdown.

IGNORE THE JUDGE.

Do we have a president or not? This Clinton Appointee is OUT OF HER MIND! pic.twitter.com/IeqZ1hH6zq

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 15, 2025

In her ruling, Judge Illston said that President Trump slashing the federal workforce due to the Schumer Shutdown was “unlawful” and politically-motivated.

Politico reported:

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee based in California, ruled from the bench after an afternoon hearing, saying that the administration isn’t following legal requirements for conducting reductions in force, or RIFs, and that officials have exceeded their authorities. Illston also cited public comments about the shutdown made by President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, adding that the layoffs appear to be unlawfully targeted at Democrats.

The judge’s order blocks administration officials from “taking any action” to issue RIF notices to federal workers represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, the country’s largest federal employees’ union.

The administration appears to have “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them any more and that they can impose the structures that they like,” Illston said.

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So far, reductions-in-force (RIFs) notices were sent out to roughly 4,000 federal workers, informing them that they were being permanently terminated from their roles.

But now, this rogue judge is attempting to toss those all out!

She’s also trying to prevent the Trump administration from sending any more RIFs out.

The Hill has more:

Her order directs the Trump administration not to issue any new RIF notices or take any steps to implement the notices issued Friday or later against employees who are represented by the unions that sued. It further directs the government to provide her with an exact count of actual or imminent layoffs by Friday.

The unions sued just before the shutdown began, contending the Trump administration’s plan to implement permanent firings instead of temporary furloughs with later back pay is unlawful.

They alleged the OMB’s suggestion in a memo last month for agencies to “use this opportunity” to consider layoffs for programs with lapsed funding that do not align with Trump’s priorities misunderstands the law governing shutdowns.

Danielle Leonard, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, pointed to past comments by OMB Director Russell Vought that endorsed leaving career civil servants “traumatically affected” by their jobs, as proof of the harm the administration sought to impose with the layoffs.

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“That’s exactly what they are doing: trauma,” Leonard said. “The emotional distress of being told you are being fired after an already exceptionally difficult year for federal employees.”

“In this context, it is traumatic; it is distressing,” she added.

As of Tuesday evening, eight departments planned to lay off workers, though the numbers continue to evolve.

The highest number of cuts was expected at the Department of Treasury, which planned to eliminate 1,337 employees, followed by 982 layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and some 600 at the Department of Commerce.

At HHS, the figure was previously much higher. Chief Human Capital Officers Thomas Nagy wrote in a declaration Tuesday that RIF notices were improperly sent to nearly 800 employees because of “data discrepancies and processing errors.”

Leonard, however, expressed skepticism that the walkback amounted to a “coding error,” suggesting that some of those fired were actively working on measles outbreaks and “someone realized what a poor decision that was.”

Vought had said earlier Wednesday that the administration could ultimately lay off more than 10,000 federal employees during the shutdown.

This ridiculous ruling should be thrown out immediately.

First of all, it goes against a SCOTUS ruling that says judges cannot make nationwide injunctions.

It also goes against another SCOTUS ruling on a similar case, where it was decided that the president has the authority to fire people at will.

The Supreme Court already made it clear that the President has the authority to fire whoever he wants.

— George (@BehizyTweets) October 15, 2025

This is just another egregious example of judicial overreach.

She’s out of her league.