A set of unions will ask a federal judge on Wednesday to block the Trump administration from conducting mass federal layoffs during the government shutdown, arguing that the firings would be illegal and motivated by political retribution.
The labor groups will present their arguments at a hearing before a court in California, just days after the administration took the first steps toward dismissing about 4,000 workers — the latest in a series of cuts that President Trump has threatened as the fiscal showdown barrels into its third week.
At issue is the extent to which Mr. Trump may fire employees simply because federal funding for their positions has expired. The president and his aides have frequently expressed delight in the opportunity afforded by the ongoing shutdown, which began Oct. 1, as they look to continue whittling down government while punishing Democrats who refuse their fiscal demands.
The unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees, contend that Mr. Trump cannot remove civil servants without a clear directive from Congress — particularly at a moment when Washington is supposed to be performing only the most vital services.
In a lawsuit filed before the first layoffs even occurred, the labor groups told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that a lapse in funding “does not repeal, vacate or otherwise have any effect” on the work of federal agencies, giving Mr. Trump no authority to target them with staffing cuts. Unions have also pointed to the president’s repeated threats to slash “Democrat programs” as a sign the layoffs are politically motivated.
The administration, in response, has asserted that Mr. Trump possesses vast power to reconfigure the federal work force, reprising a familiar argument in a legally contested campaign that has already ousted hundreds of thousands of civil servants from government.
Last week, lawyers for the Justice Department primarily objected to the timing and process by which unions brought their legal challenge. In doing so, the administration sent mixed messages about its own intentions. It described layoffs at times as “hypothetical” while acknowledging the government had started to send out notices to more than 4,000 employees.
The arguments scheduled for Wednesday in front of Judge Susan Illston are likely to center on the administration’s tactics and the scope of its layoffs, after it offered only a partial estimate of the agencies that would be targeted for cuts and the number of workers who might be affected.
The Trump administration also initially misstated to the court the number of federal employees who had received notices or would be cut, and its timing for doing so. It corrected those issues in an updated filing on Tuesday evening, indicating in one case that the layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services were much fewer than it had initially reported.
The agency erroneously sent layoff notices to hundreds of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those workers later had the notices rescinded.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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