Most, but not all shutdown RIFs blocked by injunction, agencies tell court
Court filings show some of the 4,000 RIFs are not covered by the court’s injunction and can proceed — meaning that employees will be separated by Dec. 9.
Jory Heckman
November 5, 2025 6:32 pm
3 min read
Most of the 4,000 layoff notices sent to federal employees earlier in the government shutdown are on hold, following a federal court’s order.
But agencies are now telling the court that a fraction of those RIF notices is not covered by the court’s order and can proceed.
These new details, in court documents submitted this week, show that just over 10% of the 4,000 RIFs are not covered by the court’s injunction and can proceed — meaning that those employees remain on track to be separated from their jobs on Dec. 9.
A federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction last month that prohibits agencies from issuing any RIF notices “during and because of the federal government shutdown,” to employees in any program, project or activity that includes any bargaining unit or member represented by eight unions who are leading the lawsuit.
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The vast majority of reductions-in-force will remain in effect for now. But the departments of Commerce and Health and Human Services, as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency, told the court that last month’s preliminary injunction does not cover some of the RIF notices they sent.
Crystal Taylor, the Commerce Department’s acting chief human capital officer and director of its Office of Human Resources Management, told the court that more than half of its RIF notices are currently on hold, given the court’s preliminary injunction.
Nearly 250 RIF notices that went out to employees at the Census Bureau, the Minority Business Development Agency and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are currently on hold.
However, Taylor told the court that “no employees are protected by the injunction” at programs, projects and activities at five component agencies within Commerce.
The department’s latest court filing shows that 170 of its RIF notices are not covered by the court’s preliminary injunction. That includes layoff notices sent to employees at the International Trade Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and FirstNet Authority.
At the Department of Health and Human Services, most of the agency’s nearly 950 RIF notices are subject to the court’s preliminary injunction, and remain on hold.
But Thomas Nagy, the department’s chief human capital officer and deputy assistant secretary for human resources, told the court that approximately 150 RIF notices — about 15% of its latest round of RIF notices — fall outside the court’s injunction.
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Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is telling the court that none of its RIF notices are covered by the judge’s preliminary injunction.
Madhu Gottumukkala, CISA’s acting director and deputy director, told the court in a recent filing that none of the 54 CISA employees who received RIF notices on Oct. 10 are covered by the preliminary injunction.
The Justice Department told the court that it sent RIF notices to two employees more than a week before the start of the government shutdown, and were “part of a long-planned agency reorganization.”
Jolene Ann Lauria, assistant attorney general for administration at the Justice Department, told the court that “the agency does not need to take any steps to comply with the order,” and that it doesn’t have plans to send any additional RIF notices.
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