Last Friday, May 9, a coalition of labor groups — including SEIU 1021 — as well as cities and counties and other organizations that rely on federal services scored a huge victory against President Trump’s executive order illegally reorganizing the federal government. In a courtroom in the San Francisco Federal Building, Senior District Judge Susan Illston heard the case against the president’s February executive order that would fire tens of thousands of federal workers and shut down entire federal agencies.

SEIU 1021 members and staff were in the courtroom listening to attorneys from both sides make their case to the judge in this first hearing. The plaintiff — the coalition of labor groups, city and county governments, and outside organizations — was seeking a two-week temporary restraining order pending the next hearing. The defendant representing the White House requested that rather than grant the restraining order, the judge instead issue a preliminary injunction — a procedural move that would allow them to appeal immediately and continue their plans to fire workers and reorganize agencies. The judge denied that request on the spot.

Later in the day, Judge Illston issued her ruling, which CNN calls “among the most sweeping legal setbacks Trump and DOGE have faced in their efforts to drastically winnow down the federal bureaucracy.”

The temporary restraining order blocks the administration’s approval or implementation of plans –- known as Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans, or ARRPs – for conducting mass layoffs and for shrinking or eliminating entire components of an agency. She is also pausing any orders from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cutting programs or staff in accordance with Trump’s executive order and the related directives.

“Today in court, the union fought back against something that the Trump team is trying to sneak through without the public knowing,” said SEIU 1021 VP of Representation Nicole Termini Germain, who was at the hearing on Friday. ”This was a huge step in holding off the heinous executive orders coming down from this office. If anyone can do it, SEIU can.”

The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, at 10:30 a.m. at the San Francisco Federal Building. Members of the public are welcome to attend, and SEIU 1021 members are encouraged to show up and have a presence!

“I think that it can be very intimidating to go into a court hearing, something this big, versus Trump,” said SEIU 1021 North Central Regional VP Elizabeth Harrison after the hearing. “But all you do is sit and listen and take notes and Google. There are a lot of acronyms and abbreviations you may not know. Take notes for yourself. Take notes about how you feel about what’s happening. Even though I didn’t understand all of the technicalities, I knew what [the defense's attorney] said wasn’t right. As a member, you can just come. These things are public. It is intimidating to come to the federal building. You move wrong, you won’t come out of there. But all of it belongs to us. Even though the process is intimidating, it’s our process. We have access and we have rights to be a part of it.”

Judge Illston’s 42-page ruling found that: “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.” She also found “it necessary to temporarily enjoin [halt] further implementation of those plans because they flow from likely illegal directives.” It also requires the administration to turn over by Tuesday (today) the reduction plans and to inform the judge about its efforts to carry out her order.

The case — which covers major reductions at more than a dozen agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Labor, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency — could be heard by the Supreme Court soon.