Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Labor Department enjoined from eliminating Job Corps program, (Jun 5, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Among other things, DOL is enjoined from “taking any further action to eliminate the Job Corps program without Congressional authorization.”

A federal district court in New York has granted a temporary restraining order enjoining the Department of Labor and other defendants from:

• “enforcing, implementing, maintaining or giving effect to the elimination of the Job Corps program, including the stop work orders and termination and non-renewal notices delivered to Job Corps center operators starting May 29, 2025;”

• “issuing, enforcing, implementing, maintaining or giving effect to any shutdown tasks, job terminations, or student removals;” and

• “taking any further action to eliminate the Job Corps program without Congressional authorization.”

The court waived the requirement that the plaintiffs in the case—the National Job Corps Association (NJCA), several Job Corps operators and contractors, the Transportation Communications Union/IAM (TCU), and a current Job Corps Center student and resident—post security and it ordered that the defendants should show cause why an order should not be issued pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 65.

Lawsuit filed one day earlier. The lawsuit leading to the TRO was filed on Tuesday. According to the complaint, beginning in March, DOL, at the direction of DOGE, has been taking steps to eliminate Job Corps, leading to the May 29, 2025, decision to cease operations of all contractor-based Job Corps centers.

“Eliminating the program is illegal,” the plaintiffs alleged in their complaint, adding that this action “contravenes the statutory provisions governing Job Corps and DOL’s own regulations concerning the program, and it is fundamentally irrational.”

They explained:

“Shuttering Job Corps will have disastrous, irreparable consequences, including displacing tens of thousands of vulnerable young people, destroying companies that have long operated Job Corps centers in reliance on the Government’s support for the program, and forcing mass layoffs of workers who support the program. Federal courts have recently stepped in to protect against similar efforts to extinguish Congressionally mandated programs. Plaintiffs urge this Court to do the same.”

Alleged violations of APA. They contend that the Department of Labor and other defendants’ actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act by being in excess of statutory of authority, contrary to law, and arbitrary and capricious. They also allege that the actions are ultra vires and violate separation of powers.

The case is No. 1:25-cv-04641.

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