Federal Judge Pauses Trump Admin Layoffs at Consumer Watchdog Agency

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said on Friday that she is ‘deeply concerned’ that the administration isn’t complying with a previous order.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during the investiture ceremony for U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden at the U.S. District Court in Washington on April 13, 2018. Alex Wong/Getty Images

A federal judge on April 18 blocked the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), expressing concerns about whether the mandate violates a previous court order.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at a court hearing that she is “deeply concerned” that Trump administration officials are not complying with her earlier order that maintains CFPB’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve it, according to reporters who were in the courthouse.

At the hearing, she blocked the administration from preventing CFPB workers from accessing computer systems before the court hears arguments later in April.

“It’s not going to happen in the meantime,” Jackson said. “We’re not going to disburse 1,483 people into the universe and have them be unable to communicate with the agency anymore until we have determined whether that is lawful or not.”

Jackson also said that she is “willing to resolve it quickly” but that she’s “not going to let this [reduction in force] go forward” until she has.

Berman’s verbal order on April 18 comes after the CFPB confirmed on April 17 that it would be laying off most of its employees and would terminate about 1,500 people across core divisions, including enforcement and supervision. The reductions, if they become effective, would leave about 200 workers at the bureau.

Emails being sent to employees notified them that officials had “identified [their] position being eliminated and [their] employment is subject to termination in accordance with reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures,” according to lawyers representing the National Treasury Employees Union, one of several groups that brought the lawsuit.

They said that CFPB staff were told that they would lose access to agency systems at 6 p.m. ET on April 18.

In their initial complaint, the groups alleged that the decision to dismantle the CFPB and conduct mass layoffs is a violation of the separation of powers clause in the Constitution, and that Congress created the agency “and assigned it a critical portfolio.”

Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, who is also in charge of the Office of Management and Budget, was named as the defendant in the lawsuit.

In late March, Jackson barred the administration from stopping work and firing employees at the agency, which was created in 2011 under the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

“In sum, the Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion,” Jackson wrote in her March 28 opinion, making note of Elon Musk’s Feb. 7 social media post in which we wrote, “RIP CFPB.”

A federal appeals court on April 11 narrowed her injunction, concluding that CFPB could proceed with laying off workers. That higher court also ruled that the Trump administration could not abolish the agency.

Both Musk and President Donald Trump have argued for the abolishment of the CFPB, accusing the agency of operating in a politicized manner and of being redundant. In the meantime, Trump has moved to reduce the size of the federal government and has said it is rife with fraud, waste, and abuse and needs reform.

“Delete CFPB,” Musk wrote in a post on X in November 2024. “There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.