Federal judge blocks USAID leave notices and reinstates workers

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the U.S. Agency for International Development from placing thousands of employees on administrative leave and hurriedly evacuating workers stationed overseas. The order also reinstates all employees placed on leave earlier this week.

The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit Thursday night aimed at halting the apparent effort to decimate the foreign aid agency and reposition it under the auspices of the State Department. Hundreds of stateside employees were locked out of both the agency headquarters and its computer systems at the start of the week, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been named the agency’s acting administrator.

AFSA and AFGE’s lawsuit alleges that the administration’s plans violate the constitutional separation of powers, the take care clause that tasks the president with faithfully executing federal law, and in multiple instances the Administrative Procedures Act.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols halted all of the Trump administration's workforce actions—leave placements, evacuation of overseas personnel and the shutting off of employees' access to USAID's various computer systems—until February 14 at midnight, in order to allow a fuller discussion of the legal issues.

At a hearing Friday, Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate confirmed that just days after placing around 500 employees on administrative leave, USAID planned to place another 2,200 workers on leave Friday night, moves that many believe to be a prelude to their termination. Karla Gilbride, who just last week was removed from her position as general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said Friday’s planned leave notices, many of which were aimed at USAID workers stationed overseas, would cause a myriad of harms to the agency’s workforce.

“They will be locked out of all computer systems, all payment systems, email systems, as well as systems that inform them of security threats,” she said. “This would imperil their safety, the operations of USAID and their institutional partners, and it adds to the instability of these already unstable regions.”

Shumate argued that despite all of the employee groups’ emphasis on constitutional and statutory violations, the case still should be channeled either through the Merit Systems Protection Board or the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

But Nichols, a Trump appointee, seemed frustrated with the government’s refusal to contemplate pausing their actions so that more substantive legal arguments could take place.

“You may be right, and with briefs and 24 hours, you might even convince me of that,” he said. “But I’ve got eight hours, no briefs [from you], and the hypothetical possibility that 2,200 people will be put on administrative leave and claims of irreparable harm.”

Nichols said he would issue an order before midnight Friday blocking the new administrative leave notices from going out, as well as any agency efforts to evacuate employees currently stationed overseas. He added that he may include language instructing the agency to rescind the roughly 500 leave notices that went out earlier this week, but that he was not yet sure on that point.

This story has been updated at 11:03 p.m.