A federal judge in Washington said Friday he would temporarily order the federal government not to place thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development employees on administrative leave and to stop forcing them to relocate to the United States.
Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced that intended ruling at the conclusion of a hearing in a lawsuit brought by federal foreign service officers’ union and federal government workers’ union.
The unions had argued for an order that would have had the government further unwind the Trump administration’s attempt to shutter the agency. The lawsuit is the most prominent legal challenge to the effort.
