A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing its “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation offer, delaying the plan until at least Monday afternoon.
U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, issued the order Thursday, pausing the administration’s effort to trim the federal workforce through a voluntary resignation incentive.
“I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called directive pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” O’Toole said during a remote hearing. “I believe that’s as far as I want to go today.”
The judge scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to determine whether to extend the temporary restraining order. In the meantime, Justice Department attorneys have pledged to notify every federal employee subject to the delay.
The “Fork in the Road” offer, issued by the Office of Personnel Management, gave over 2 million federal workers until midnight Thursday to resign in exchange for continued pay through Sept. 30. The plan, modeled after Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk’s restructuring of Twitter, now X, has sparked fierce opposition from federal employee unions.
Three major unions — the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — filed a lawsuit challenging the directive. The lawsuit argues that the initiative lacks a legal basis, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and pressures employees into resigning under the threat of future layoffs.
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The unions also warned that the program could destabilize federal agencies, stripping them of key personnel while making vacancies vulnerable to partisan hiring.
At least 40,000 federal workers, roughly 2% of the federal workforce, have already accepted the offer, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The case is expected to escalate as the administration defends its efforts to trim the government workforce.
