On Friday, February 21, a federal judge in the United States cleared the way for over two thousand employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to go on leave, dealing a blow to the union that was suing the government over its attempt to dissolve the agency.
Federal District Court Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., ruled on Friday to lift the temporary restraining order he had previously issued and denied issuing a longer-term order to allow these employees to stay in their positions.
In his ruling, Judge Nichols expressed satisfaction with the assurances made by the federal government in court filings that the USAID personnel placed on leave would still receive security protection while on furlough.
Nichols was appointed as a regional district judge during Trump’s first term in office. He also stated in the ruling that since the affected employees had not gone through administrative dispute resolution procedures, he likely did not have jurisdiction to hear the union’s case or consider their broader arguments, including the allegation that the government’s closure of an agency created and funded by Congress violated the U.S. Constitution.
Earlier this month, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) filed the lawsuit. The international non-governmental development and relief organization Oxfam later joined the lawsuit, but Nichols has not yet considered their claims.
On his first day in office, Trump ordered a freeze on all foreign aid for a 90-day review. In the following weeks, government officials took measures that essentially shut down the operations of USAID, including placing many employees on leave, suspending or terminating most contracts, and closing the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in a letter to Congress on February 4 that he had taken on the role of Acting Director of USAID, proposing to absorb parts of the agency into the State Department through negotiations with Congress and to close the remaining parts of the agency.
The Trump administration’s actions to freeze foreign aid and potentially shut down USAID have sparked multiple legal challenges.