Here’s the answer from Elon Musk’s Grok.
Temporarily Blocked
The Wall Street Journal reports Judge Temporarily Blocks Move to Fire Federal Employees During Shutdown
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with mass firings of federal employees while the government is shut down.
Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary restraining order in a ruling from the bench on Wednesday, stopping the government from cutting federal workers at multiple agencies.
The Trump administration moved ahead on threats last week to lay off federal workers, sending reductions in force notices, otherwise known as RIFs, to about 4,000 employees at more than a half-dozen federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education and Commerce.
President Trump has referred to the cuts as “Democrat-oriented” and has been seeking to increase pressure on Democrats to end the standoff in Congress over government funding. The shutdown started Oct. 1.
“Ordering any employee to work during a shutdown to administer a RIF process would directly violate the Antideficiency Act,” said attorneys for the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The Antideficiency Act requires agencies to cease most operations during a government shutdown, with only a few exceptions.
After OMB Director Russell Vought announced in an Oct. 10 social-media post that the RIFs had begun, the labor unions asked Illston to immediately stop the administration from implementing any notices during the shutdown.
Vought said in an interview Wednesday with “The Charlie Kirk Show” earlier in the day that the administration planned to increase the number of layoffs to more than 10,000.
“It will get much higher. We’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout this shutdown because we think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people,” Vought said.
Illston ordered the Trump administration to file a detailed accounting of all RIFs, actual or imminent, that are now blocked by her temporary restraining order, as well as the steps it has taken to comply with her ruling.
A Conversation with Grok
Mish: Does the The Antideficiency Act (ADA) prohibit firing of federal employees in the government shutdown?
Grok: Yes, the Antideficiency Act (ADA), codified at 31 U.S.C. §§ 1341–1342 and 1511–1519, effectively prohibits firing federal employees during a government shutdown, as it bans obligating or expending federal funds in excess of available appropriations.
Key Provisions and Reasoning
- Core Prohibition: The ADA forbids federal agencies from making expenditures or creating obligations (e.g., contracts, salaries) without congressional appropriations. During a shutdown, non-essential functions halt because funding lapses, leaving agencies unable to commit to future payments.
- Application to Personnel Actions: Firing an employee creates a legal obligation for severance, unemployment benefits, or potential back pay if the termination is challenged (e.g., via appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or court). Courts and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have ruled that such actions violate the ADA if they risk unappropriated expenditures. For instance:
- GAO decisions (e.g., B-323505, 2011) clarify that personnel actions like reductions in force (RIFs) or terminations during funding gaps are impermissible if they involve obligations payable from lapsed appropriations.
- The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance during shutdowns (e.g., 2018–2019 and 2023) instructs agencies to furlough non-essential employees without pay but retain them on the rolls, explicitly avoiding firings to prevent ADA violations.
- Furlough vs. Firing: Employees are placed on furlough (administrative leave without pay), which is reversible once funding resumes. Firing severs the employment relationship, triggering costs that can’t be obligated without funds, as affirmed in precedents like United States v. Mitchell (1982), where the Supreme Court upheld ADA’s strict limits on unappropriated obligations.
- Exceptions: Essential employees (e.g., those funded by multi-year or no-year appropriations, like military or disaster response) continue working and can’t be fired under shutdown rules. Voluntary separations (e.g., resignations) are allowed, but involuntary firings are not.
Historical Evidence
- In the 2013 and 2018–2019 shutdowns, agencies like the Department of Defense and IRS furloughed hundreds of thousands but issued no mass firings, per OPM reports and congressional oversight.
- Violations can lead to personal liability for officials (fines up to $5,000 and imprisonment), deterring such actions—e.g., a 1980s case where NASA officials were penalized for improper obligations.
This interpretation is standard across executive branch guidance, GAO rulings, and legal analyses from sources like the Congressional Research Service (CRS Report R41759). Firing would undermine Congress’s “power of the purse” under Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, which the ADA enforces.
The howls about activist judges will surface again because Judge Susan Illston was nominated by President Bill Clinton.
I don’t care about ad hominem attacks. Grok laid out a very good case and I will go with that.
What we want to happen is irrelevant. The law is what matters, and should matter.
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