Judge indefinitely halts shutdown layoffs noting human toll

[Dulcinea]

(NPR) A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely halted the Trump administration's mass layoffs of federal employees tied to the government shutdown.

The decision came almost two weeks after U.S. District Judge Susan Illston temporarily paused thousands of layoffs, known as RIFs, or reductions-in-force, at agencies where the federal employee unions that brought the lawsuit, including the American Federation of Government Employees, have members or bargaining units.

In court on Tuesday, an attorney representing the Trump administration pushed back, asserting that the executive branch can conduct RIFs before, during or after a lapse in Congressional appropriations to achieve the president's policy priorities — and that it's good policy to do so.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/28/nx-s1-5585083/government-shutdown-trump-rif-layoffs

[riversedge]

1. he wanted government bureaucrats to be "traumatically affected" to the point of not wanting to go to work.

I do not even attempt to understand the meanness of our Federal Government



"Receiving a RIF notice during the government shutdown, on top of the previous RIF, has been traumatic and it will have a lasting impact on my health," she wrote. "It doesn't feel as though the administration thought about or cared about that long-lasting impact."

Medrano did not respond to NPR's request for further comment.

In the initial hearing in the case two weeks ago, the plaintiffs' attorney Leonard pointed to comments made by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought before Trump's re-election.

In a private speech in 2023 surfaced by ProPublica, Vought, who is now largely seen as the force behind the shutdown layoffs, said he wanted government bureaucrats to be "traumatically affected" to the point of not wanting to go to work.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/28/nx-s1-5585083/government-shutdown-trump-rif-layoffs

[Irish_Dem]

2. Or course Trump thought about the psychological impact. He loves hurting people.

This is what he lives for.

Inflicting pain and damage.

He is a brutal psychopath.