A federal judge on Friday moved to “dissolve” a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from hollowing out the U.S. Agency for International Development, paving the way for the administration to pursue its plan to place thousands of foreign aid employees on administrative leave.
In a 26-page order, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that two unions representing thousands of foreign service officers had failed to demonstrate how personnel changes at USAID would cause them “irreparable harm,” the legal standard for a preliminary injunction.
Nichols, a Trump appointee, wrote that if the government deems it necessary to place thousands of workers on administrative leave in order to review U.S.-backed foreign assistance, it is their prerogative to do so.
The judge was persuaded by the Trump administration official tasked with slashing USAID, Pete Morocco, who claimed in a court filing that career USAID officers had disregarded its “pencils down approach” to reviewing the agency’s foreign assistance programs.
“According to the government, interfering with this ‘pencils down’ approach’ would prevent it from auditing USAID’s operations in the manner necessary to ensure the agency is acting in the national (and perhaps global) interest,” Judge Nichols wrote.
Nichols had previously issued an order temporarily halting the administration’s efforts to plaice thousands of USAID employees on administrative leave, citing in large part a claim that employees stationed overseas who lost “access to agency email and security systems” would face tremendous risks to their safety.
Recently fired U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff react as they leave work and are applauded by former USAID staffers and supporters during a sendoff outside USAID offices in Washington, D.C., Feb. 21, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
“But several subsequent submissions by the government persuade the Court that the risk posed to USAID employees who are placed on administrative leave while stationed abroad — if there is any — is far more minimal than it initially appeared,” Nichols wrote Friday.
Nichols added that “the prospect of plaintiffs’ members suffering physical harm from being placed on administrative leave while abroad is highly unlikely.”
The order will allow the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to place all but 611 direct-hire USAID employees on administrative leave.