Judge Susan Illston found DHS violated federal law by taking control of FEMA’s authority over its own personnel.
By Catholics for Catholics
In another blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled that the presidency acted in an unlawful way when it ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut its workforce in half.
According to a story by Fox News, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled on Friday that the Department of Homeland Security acted against the law by controlling FEMA’s authority over its own personnel and forcing the agency to slash thousands of disaster-response jobs.
FEMA is under DHS, but a federal law undertaken after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 states that the department “may not substantially or significantly reduce (FEMA’s) authorities, responsibilities, or functions.”
Illston said the department violated the law last year when it intended to halt FEMA from renewing the temporary contracts of thousands of on-call reservists who respond to disasters.
“There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decision-making for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA’s renewal authority,” Illston wrote.
Illston’s ruling did not include remedies or penalties, noting that those would be addressed in a separate ruling next month.
The judge said the parties have until Oct. 9 to submit briefings on “what relief remains outstanding” in this case.
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