By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Friday refused to pause a judge’s ruling blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from carrying out mass layoffs of federal workers and a restructuring of government agencies as part of a sweeping government overhaul.
The decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that, for now, the Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to shed tens of thousands of federal jobs and shutter many government offices and programs.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco on May 22 blocked large-scale layoffs at about 20 federal agencies, agreeing with a group of unions, nonprofits and municipalities that the president may only restructure agencies when authorized by Congress.
A three-judge 9th Circuit panel on Friday denied the Trump administration’s bid to stay Illston’s decision pending an appeal, which could take months to resolve. The administration will likely now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the ruling.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rod Nickel)
