President Donald Trump’s latest plan to decimate the federal workforce is already under legal assault.
On Tuesday, unions and advocacy groups took the administration to federal court in California over its threat to use the government shutdown to conduct a mass firing of federal employees.
“President Trump is using the civil service as a bargaining chip as he marches the American people into a government shutdown,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, in a statement accompanying the lawsuit. “Federal workers do the work of the people and playing games with their livelihoods is cruel and unlawful.”
After a memo last week from the Office of Management and Budget instructed agencies to consider reductions in force — or RIFs — for some federal staffers, legal experts noted that the administration’s plan was unsupported by federal law.
