Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Trump administration petitions Ninth Circuit for writ of mandamus against court that granted TRO, ordered document production, (May 14, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Meanwhile, in a separate appeal to the Ninth Circuit, the administration is directly challenging the lower court’s order entering injunctive relief.

After a federal district court in California last week concluded that a collection of unions, non-profit organizations, and local governments was entitled to a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration’s ongoing layoffs of federal workers pursuant to Executive Order 14210, the Trump administration moved swiftly to circumvent the result. At the district court level it moved for a protective order, for reconsideration, and for a stay pending appeal. It also appealed the district court’s order directly to the Ninth Circuit, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, and filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal.

Executive Order 14210 directs federal agency heads “to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)” focusing on the President’s agency reorganization priorities, a federal district court in California found. The court below concluded that plaintiffs showed a likelihood of success on their claim that the EO usurps Congress’s Article I powers, and that no statute gives OPM, OMB, or DOGE the authority to direct another federal agency to engage in large-scale terminations, restructuring, or elimination of itself. It also determined that there was a likelihood of success on the plaintiffs’ claims that OPM and OMB engaged in rulemaking to implement the EO without the public notice and comment process required by the APA.

Deadline postponed. The lower court declined to consider the motion for stay pending appeal, but it postponed the government’s deadline (originally set for May 13, 2025) to produce Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans while it considers the government’s motion for reconsideration or for a protective order.

In the petition for writ of mandamus against the federal district court, filed with the Ninth Circuit by Trump before the lower court extended the production deadline, the federal government asks that court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the district court to vacate its order of May 9, 2025, which requires it to produce privileged documents and enjoins 20 federal agencies from carrying out the EO’s instructions.

Asks court to block injunction. Specifically, the Trump administration contends that mandamus is warranted to block the disclosure of privileged documents, arguing that the deliberative process privilege applies to the Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans sought by OPM and OMB. The administration also argues that mandamus is warranted to block the lower court’s “sweeping injunction,” arguing that the lower court’s order “is an appealable preliminary injunction in all but name,” but that if the appeals court deemed otherwise, mandamus jurisdiction should be exercised.

The dockets are Nos. 25-3030 and 25-3034.

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