Judge says White House office of management and budget took advantage of government shutdown in firing workers

A federal court has granted a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s firings of federal employees during the government shutdown.

The ruling by Judge Susan Illston of the US district court’s northern district of California came in response to a lawsuit filed by labor unions representing federal workers.

“I am inclined to grant the plaintiff’s motion,” said Illston during a court hearing on the injunction request. “The evidence suggests that the office of management and budget, OMB, and the office of personnel management, OPM, have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in 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 on the government situation that they don’t like, and I find, I believe, that the plaintiffs will demonstrate, ultimately, that what’s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”