A federal choose on Thursday denied a movement for a short lived restraining order (TRO) that will have reinstated fired USAID contractors.
US District Decide Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, mentioned the contractors didn’t show they might face irreparable hurt that will warrant quick aid.
The choose additionally mentioned it’s a contract dispute.
Decide Nichols has *denied* USAID contractors an emergency restraining order blocking the mass termination of their contracts, saying they have not proven the kind of “irreparable” hurt that warrants aid.
It is basically a contract dispute, he mentioned in courtroom this AM.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 6, 2025
The Hill reported:
A federal choose on Thursday declined to instantly spare U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) contractors from mass firings, letting transfer ahead a core a part of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the company.
U.S. District Decide Carl Nichols mentioned USAID’s private providers contractors didn’t show they face irreparable hurt and a probability of success on the deserves, denying their movement for a short lived restraining order that will have returned fired contractors to employment and allowed them to renew work.
The choose mentioned any hurt the contractors face is “instantly traceable” to adjustments the federal government has made to their contracts, suggesting aid ought to be sought by means of a distinct avenue.
The Private Companies Contractor Affiliation, an advocacy group for U.S. private providers contractors, sued the Trump administration final month to insulate the contractors from efforts to tear down the company.
In courtroom filings, legal professionals for the contractors mentioned notices of contract termination had been distributed to “probably lots of” of the roughly 1,110 contractors who work for USAID, some 46 p.c of whom work abroad.
Final month, in a separate case involving a union representing USAID contractors, Decide Nichols declined to dam the Trump Administration’s transfer to put hundreds of USAID employees on go away.
The restraining order expired on the separate case a few weeks in the past and the choose declined a request for a preliminary injunction.
Decide Nichols mentioned in a 26-page decision that the plaintiffs (the union that represents the USAID employees) haven’t demonstrated that additional preliminary injunctive aid is warranted.
Primarily based on this document, the Court docket concludes that the prospect of plaintiffs’ members struggling bodily hurt from being positioned on administrative go away whereas overseas is very unlikely. And to the extent that plaintiffs allege that paid administrative go away will hurt their members in methods aside from by way of the supposed removing of safety protections—similar to by tarnishing their members’ reputations or by stopping them from performing their normal duties, these forms of normal employment harms “fall[] far in need of the kind of irreparable damage which is a obligatory predicate to the issuance of a [preliminary] injunction,” Decide Nichols wrote.
Hundreds of USAID employees will likely be positioned on administrative go away.
