American Foreign Service Association urges State Dept to halt planned layoffs amid litigation
Source: Reuters
June 25, 2025 8:48 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - The American Foreign Service Association urged the State Department on Wednesday to not go ahead with a planned overhaul that likely would see around 2,000 layoffs, saying it should abide by a court ruling barring federal agencies from implementing mass firings.
The department has prepared to start sending hundreds of reduction-in-force notices to its domestic workforce as early as Friday, sources familiar with the plan said, but a final decision on the timing is yet to be taken. Ongoing litigation may well delay that timeline.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court can weigh in anytime on the Trump administration's bid to halt the judicial order blocking mass job cuts. "Sources inside the department tell us that layoffs will be announced as soon as the end of this week or early next week,” AFSA President Tom Yazdgerdi said in a statement.
"Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the department is legally barred from taking any action outlined in its reorganization plans," Yazdgerdi said. A senior State Department official said: "AFSA's statement is false and the Department has no plans to violate a court order."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/american-foreign-service-association-urges-state-dept-halt-planned-layoffs-amid-2025-06-25/
Link to American Foreign Service Association PRESS RELEASE - AFSA Urges State Department to Comply with Federal Injunction, Halt Planned RIFs
This administration has spent 6 months violating numerous laws and "violating court orders", up to the point of almost being sanctioned, before slowly semi-walking it back.