A federal judge on Friday declined to block the Trump administration from placing more than 2,000 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on leave, marking a setback for government employee unions challenging what they describe as an effort to dismantle the agency.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ruled on Feb. 21 that the unions had not demonstrated that their members faced irreparable harm from being placed on administrative leave. In his decision, Nichols denied a request for a preliminary injunction, stating that the plaintiffs had not established a likelihood of success on the merits and that the public interest did not strongly favor an injunction.
