The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out a plan to place about 2,200 U.S. Agency for International Development employees on paid leave and require many overseas staffers to return to the United States within 30 days. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, also ordered that some workers already sidelined under the plan be reinstated while the case continues. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/48f8460804d33bdaa18d7765c4b24f9e?utm_source=openai))

The ruling was limited. Nichols did not stop the separate funding freeze that had already disrupted the agency’s work, and he said from the bench that the order was not a final decision on the Trump administration’s broader effort to shrink or restructure USAID. The plaintiffs, including federal employee groups, argued that the administration was acting without legal authority and that the leave plan would cause immediate harm to workers and overseas operations. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/48f8460804d33bdaa18d7765c4b24f9e?utm_source=openai))

The court fight came after the administration moved quickly to unwind parts of the agency’s global footprint, including plans that would have sent many posted employees home on a compressed timeline at government expense. The temporary restraining order kept that step on hold while the court considered the underlying claims. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/48f8460804d33bdaa18d7765c4b24f9e?utm_source=openai))

For now, the immediate effect of the ruling was to pause the leave-and-return plan, not to decide USAID’s long-term fate. The broader dispute over the agency’s funding, staffing and authority remains in court. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/48f8460804d33bdaa18d7765c4b24f9e?utm_source=openai))