Judge halts firings during government shutdown

What happened

A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown, scuttling an administration plan to pressure Democrats into ending the now three-week-old standoff. Workers at the departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Health were among those to receive layoff notices, with White House budget director Russell Vought saying that “north of 10,000” federal jobs could be eliminated during the shutdown. The administration sent notices to 1,300 workers at the Centers for Disease Control—including analysts who monitor biological and chemical threats to the U.S.—then a day later scrambled to reverse more than half the firings, saying they were issued in error. At the Education De