The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., issued a ruling Monday to restore a lower court’s order barring the Trump administration’s planned mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau (CFPB).
The court ruled 2-1 to restore an earlier ruling by federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, which temporarily halted the Trump administration’s reductions in force (RIF) at CFPB, which would have cut the agency’s staff by 90 percent.
Before Jackson’s ruling, the agency was slated to carry out a reduction in force of roughly 1,400 employees, which would have left just several hundred in place.
Following a legal challenge against the reduction filed in the D.C. district court in early February, Jackson issued a preliminary injunction in late March, finding that the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the merits.
The order directed the government to ‘rehire all terminated employees, reinstate all terminated contracts, and refrain from engaging in reductions-in-force or attempting to stop work through any means.’
Jackson then ordered another halt to plans earlier this month, shortly after an appeals court narrowed her earlier injunction. Jackson noted that within several days of an appeals order narrowing her initial injunction, CFPB employees were told the agency would do ‘exactly what it was told not to do,’ which was to carry out a RIF.
Jackson blocked the administration from moving forward with any layoffs or from cutting off employees’ access to computers at the bureau until she had time to hear from the officials in question.
Jackson said she was ‘willing to resolve it quickly,’ but noted that she is ‘deeply concerned, given the scope and scope of action.’
Lawyers with the Justice Department sought to appeal Jackson’s order earlier this year, arguing in a filing that the injunction ‘improperly intrudes on the executive [branch’s] authority’ and goes ‘far beyond what is lawful.’
Jackson is set to hear testimony from officials slated to carry out the RIF procedures on Tuesday.
