By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) -A federal judge in California on Friday temporarily blocked the U.S. State Department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco during a virtual hearing said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of President Donald Trump applies to the planned overhaul announced by the State Department last month.
U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Alexander Resar said in response that the State Department would not issue layoff notices that were scheduled to go out on Saturday.
The State Department had argued that its reorganization plan submitted to Congress last month predated a February executive order and subsequent White House memo directing mass layoffs, placing it outside the scope of Illston’s decision.
The ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of unions, nonprofits and municipalities.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
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