Judge Carl Nichols
A federal judge on Thursday denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have reinstated fired USAID contractors.
US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said the contractors failed to prove they would face irreparable harm that would warrant immediate relief.
The judge also said it is a contract dispute.
Judge Nichols has *denied* USAID contractors an emergency restraining order blocking the mass termination of their contracts, saying they haven’t shown the type of “irreparable” harm that warrants relief.
It’s essentially a contract dispute, he said in court this AM.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 6, 2025
The Hill reported:
A federal judge on Thursday declined to immediately spare U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractors from mass firings, letting move forward a core part of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the agency.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said USAID’s personal services contractors failed to prove they face irreparable harm and a likelihood of success on the merits, denying their motion for a temporary restraining order that would have returned fired contractors to employment and allowed them to resume work.
The judge said any harm the contractors face is “directly traceable” to changes the government has made to their contracts, suggesting relief should be sought through a different avenue.
The Personal Services Contractor Association, an advocacy group for U.S. personal services contractors, sued the Trump administration last month to insulate the contractors from efforts to tear down the agency.
In court filings, lawyers for the contractors said notices of contract termination had been distributed to “possibly hundreds” of the roughly 1,110 contractors who work for USAID, some 46 percent of whom work overseas.
Last month, in a separate case involving a union representing USAID contractors, Judge Nichols declined to block the Trump Administration’s move to place thousands of USAID workers on leave.
The restraining order expired on the separate case a couple of weeks ago and the judge declined a request for a preliminary injunction.
Judge Nichols said in a 26-page decision that the plaintiffs (the union that represents the USAID workers) have not demonstrated that further preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.
Based on this record, the Court concludes that the prospect of plaintiffs’ members suffering physical harm from being placed on administrative leave while abroad is highly unlikely. And to the extent that plaintiffs allege that paid administrative leave will harm their members in ways other than via the supposed removal of security protections—such as by tarnishing their members’ reputations or by preventing them from performing their standard duties, those types of standard employment harms “fall[] far short of the type of irreparable injury which is a necessary predicate to the issuance of a [preliminary] injunction,” Judge Nichols wrote.
Thousands of USAID workers will be placed on administrative leave.
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