Thousands of federal employees are getting laid off. Will a judge intervene?

Updated October 15, 2025 at 5:05 AM PDT

With the federal government shutdown now two weeks old and counting, a federal judge in San Francisco will weigh whether to temporarily halt the latest wave of layoffs by the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will hear preliminary arguments on Wednesday in a case brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which together represent more than 800,000 federal workers.

In a brief filed with the court Tuesday, the unions accuse the Trump administration of "using federal employees as pawns to impose political pressure on the Administration's perceived opponents in Congress."

They ask the court for a temporary restraining order to p