Law & Crime reports the Trump administration filed a Sunday court request asking a California federal judge to pull an order before it causes the administration “embarrassment”.
The judge’s order would force the administration to disclose its battle plan for mass firings across multiple federal agencies “as part of the president’s effort to gut the federal workforce.” But the Trump administration told the judge over the weekend that if U.S. residents see the tactics the administration is using to raze the workforce it could cause it “annoyance.”
The submission arrived days after U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a temporary restraining order from a coalition of labor unions, nonprofit groups, and municipalities blocking firings resulting of a DOGE related executive order. But Illston also issued a “Disclosure Order” directing Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganization Plans be submitted to court for review.
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On Sunday, administration lawyers asked the judge to keep that information under wraps.
“[Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganization Plans] contain significant, highly sensitive information the disclosure of which will irreparably harm … Defendant Agencies, harm that cannot be undone once the documents are disclosed,” administration attorneys say.
The court has already shown misgivings with how the administration tried to implement mass lay-offs, leaving most of the firings to the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management and DOGE, when it should have enlisted the help of Congress.
“It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government,” Illston wrote in her Friday order. “But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his co-equal branch and partner, the Congress.”
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“In sum, no statute gives OPM, OMB, or DOGE the authority to direct other federal agencies to engage in large-scale terminations, restructuring, or elimination of itself,” Illston wrote. “Such action is far outside the bounds of any authority that Congress vested in OPM or OMB, and, as noted, DOGE has no statutory authority whatsoever.”
Read the full Law & Crime report here.