Judge rules Trump administration order to fire FEMA staffers was illegal
Federal Judge Finds FEMA Staffing Cut Order Unlawful
Qwenews.com – A federal judge has concluded that the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it moved to sharply reduce staffing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency by limiting the renewal of contracts for key disaster-response workers.
US District Judge Susan Illston, who sits in Northern California, ruled Friday that the Department of Homeland Security acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it withdrew FEMA’s ability to renew appointments for its Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery employees. Those workers, commonly called CORE staff, represent roughly 40% of FEMA’s workforce.
The ruling gives a significant legal victory to the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO, which challenged the administration’s actions. The court has not yet determined the precise remedy, however, and has directed the parties to work toward an agreement on the appropriate scope of relief.
CORE employees play a central disaster-response role
CORE workers are frequently among the first federal personnel deployed after hurricanes, floods and other major emergencies. Their work can include overseeing aid distribution, helping administer recovery programs and supporting long-term federal funding for affected states and communities.
Historically, these employees served contracts lasting two to four years, with renewals being routine. During the Trump administration’s broader 2025 effort to reduce the size of the federal government, DHS limited FEMA to extensions of 180 days while officials considered a longer-term plan to shrink the agency.
In January, DHS instructed FEMA to allow at least some contracts to expire rather than renew them, effectively forcing employees out when their terms ended. The action was part of a larger administration effort to restructure FEMA, reduce its staffing and move more responsibility for disaster preparation, response and recovery to state governments.
The administration has argued that FEMA is inefficient, partisan and oversized. Yet a 2023 Government Accountability Office report found that the agency faced a staffing shortage exceeding 6,000 employees, underscoring concerns about FEMA’s capacity during severe disasters.
Judge cites lack of reasoned explanation
Although FEMA operates within DHS, Illston pointed to a 2006 law passed by Congress that prohibits the homeland security secretary from substantially or significantly reducing FEMA’s authorities, responsibilities or functions.
DHS had been exempted from President Donald Trump’s January 2025 hiring freeze. But the department later treated FEMA CORE contract renewals as though they were new hires subject to that freeze. Illston found no adequate basis for the shift in policy.
“There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decision for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA’s renewal authority.”
The judge’s finding focuses not only on the consequences for individual employees, but also on the process DHS used to control FEMA’s staffing decisions. Federal agencies generally must provide a reasoned explanation when they reverse established policy, particularly when the change affects a workforce central to statutory duties.
Signal messages also drew a judicial rebuke
Illston separately ruled that Signal use by former acting FEMA head Karen Evans and former DHS deputy chief of staff Joseph Guy violated federal law and departmental policy. Signal is a secure messaging platform with privacy protections, but messages can be configured to disappear automatically.
Evans created a Signal group chat that appeared likely to contain information relevant to the lawsuit, the judge wrote. The messages were set to delete after four weeks. In March, after Evans became a defendant in the litigation, she shortened the auto-delete period.
Evans did not create a backup of her Signal messages until April 2026. By then, Illston wrote, the messages most relevant to the case had already disappeared. The court found her conduct intentional.
“Evans should have known better,” Illston wrote. “She previously served as Chief Information Officer at DHS, in charge of the agency’s records preservation policies.”
As a consequence, the administration cannot rely in later proceedings on earlier testimony denying plans to dramatically reduce FEMA staffing or denying DHS involvement in those actions. Illston said the court will presume that the missing Signal material would have harmed the defendants’ position.
“The Court will presume that the lost Signal messages would have been unfavorable to Defendants because they would have been further evidence of Defendants’ plan, DHS’s control, and Defendants’ implementing actions.”
Next phase will address relief for workers
The unions sought a broad order rescinding all non-renewal notices issued to CORE employees since the beginning of the year, restoring affected workers to their jobs and stopping implementation of a plan to cut FEMA’s staff by 50%.
Illston indicated that such relief could be overly expansive because FEMA is no longer systematically declining to renew CORE contracts. The next proceedings will therefore focus on a narrower question: what corrective measures are needed after the court found the underlying DHS action unlawful.
The case highlights the operational stakes of staffing decisions at FEMA. CORE personnel support the agency’s ability to respond quickly when communities face disasters, while the litigation raises broader questions about how far an administration may go in reshaping an agency whose mission and responsibilities are defined by Congress.
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