A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to place thousands of USAID employees on leave, delivering the administration an early legal setback in its effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, issued the order on February 7, 2025, according to the AP report in the evidence packet. The ruling pauses a plan that would have put many staffers off the job and also freezes the administration’s effort to give overseas employees just 30 days to return to the United States at government expense.
The judge said the proposed moves would expose workers and their families to unnecessary risk and expense. His order pointed to reports from employees abroad who had lost access to agency email systems and other emergency communication tools. The AP piece also says some workers had found phone-based “panic button” apps removed or disabled after the administration abruptly furloughed them.
The case goes beyond ordinary personnel rules because it sits inside a larger campaign by Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to strip the agency’s power and shut down much of its global operations. The administration has already frozen most funding for USAID, suspended staff, and disrupted aid and development programs around the world.
Nichols did not, however, grant every request made by the employee groups suing the administration. He declined to impose a temporary block on the broader funding freeze that has shut down the agency’s work, saying more hearings were needed before he could go that far.
The ruling also ordered staffers who had already been placed on leave to be reinstated. That part of the order was significant because it moved beyond preventing further action and required the administration to unwind some of what had already been done.
The AP report says the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees argue Trump cannot shut down the agency without Congress. That is the core legal issue in the case: whether a president can effectively dismantle an agency created and funded through federal law without legislative approval.
The judge’s comments highlighted the practical consequences for personnel overseas. In one passage cited by AP, Nichols contrasted administrative leave in Washington suburbs with administrative leave in a war zone, underscoring the danger for USAID staff posted abroad.
The administration has moved aggressively against the agency, even physically stripping USAID signage from its Washington headquarters. Those moves have drawn protests from lawmakers and aid advocates who say the government is not simply reorganizing an office, but attempting to erase a major channel for U.S. foreign assistance.
The order is not the end of the case. It is a temporary measure meant to hold the line while the lawsuit proceeds. But it represents the first clear judicial limit on the administration’s campaign against USAID and may shape how quickly the White House can move as legal challenges continue.
For now, the ruling leaves the agency in a contested and unstable position. It also signals that judges may be willing to intervene when personnel decisions put workers, especially those overseas, in immediate jeopardy.
