A judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to place 2,200 US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on paid leave hours before it happened.
Judge Carl Nichols said he would issue a “very limited” temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by unions, challenging the plan to place thousands of staff on leave from midnight on Friday.
USAID, the US government’s main overseas development arm, employs about 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom work overseas. The status of the remaining staff members regarding their jobs is unclear.
Under Trump’s plan, some 611 employees would have been kept working at the agency. The ruling came as officials removed and covered USAID signs at the organisation’s headquarters in Washington DC.
Trump has argued that USAID is not a valuable use of taxpayer money. It is one of many federal agencies his administration is targeting as it works to slash federal spending in the US.
The Republican campaigned on overhauling the government and formed an advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, to slash the budget.
Friday’s ruling by Judge Nichols came in response to an emergency petition by the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees—two unions representing agency employees.
Judge Nichols, whom Trump nominated during his first term, said the written order would be issued later and go into more detail.
The organisations that sued told the BBC they were waiting for the court order’s text to determine how all USAID employees would be affected.
However, Lauren Bateman, an attorney at Public Citizen, an advocacy group that filed the lawsuit, says the agency’s more than 2,000 direct hires who are union members would be safe for now.
About 500 USAID staff have already been placed on leave by the Trump administration.
During the hearing, the judge did not seem likely to grant other requests related to the lawsuit, such as restoring grants and contracts or reopening USAID buildings.
The legal action argued that the president violated the US Constitution and federal law by attempting to dismantle the agency.
“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” it said.
“And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency.”
Justice Department official Brett Shumate, representing the Trump administration, told the judge that the president “has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID.”
