Judge Rules in Favor of Trump Administration’s Recall of USAID Workers

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A federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to place thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development employees on leave, including many stationed overseas. In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, lifted the temporary hold he had imposed two weeks earlier. Nichols determined that initial concerns suggesting USAID staff and their families could face physical danger or have medical treatments disrupted were “overstated” upon closer examination.

 

He also stated that the potential effects on employees and those reliant on USAID’s work did not clearly outweigh the harm caused by obstructing the administration’s broader efforts to reshape foreign aid policy.  

 

“The government has made a colorable case that the actions challenged in this case are essential to its policy goals,” Nichols wrote.  

 

The ruling was a blow to the two federal workers’ unions that had filed suit, along with Oxfam, the international aid organization, in an effort to block the administration’s recall plan. The decision leaves open the possibility of an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  

 

“Today’s ruling is a setback but we remain committed to our USAID members and the valuable work they do,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “We will continue to fight the administration’s illegal efforts to dismantle USAID.”  

 

Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, who argued the case on behalf of the unions, did not specify whether an appeal was forthcoming but signaled that legal action would continue. “We will move expeditiously for further and permanent relief to stop the devastation,” she said.  

 

The ruling follows another decision last week by a different Washington judge who temporarily halted the administration’s attempt to freeze foreign aid grants and contracts managed by USAID and the State Department. Meanwhile, individuals holding personal services contracts with USAID have launched a separate legal challenge to prevent their agreements from being suspended or terminated. That case was recently reassigned to Nichols, and his ruling Friday suggests he may not grant emergency relief to those workers.  

 

Nichols’ decision did not constitute a final determination on whether the leave orders or anticipated mass layoffs were lawful. However, he noted that Congress had established legal mechanisms for federal employees to resolve employment disputes, and he indicated that the unions' lawsuit appeared to be an attempt to bypass those processes.  

 

Lawyers for the unions countered that the sheer number of affected employees made it impractical to pursue claims through federal civil service boards. They also argued that those panels were unlikely to act swiftly enough to mitigate the emergency situations many USAID personnel were now facing under the administration’s plan.

 

Based on a report by Politico  2025-02-24