California Judge Who Lost to the Supreme Court Once Already Targets FEMA Again

The Supreme Court already smacked down this same judge for blocking Trump's federal layoffs last year.

Now that same judge just ruled against Trump's plan to slash FEMA's staff in half.

She says DHS broke a law from 2005 and deleted the messages to hide it.

DHS Ordered FEMA to Cut Its Workforce Nearly in Half

Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled Friday that the Trump administration's plan to gut FEMA's workforce violated federal law.

The plan called for shrinking FEMA from roughly 22,700 employees down to 11,383.

That is not a trim.

That is cutting the agency responsible for hurricanes, floods, and wildfires down to less than half its size.

Illston is a Clinton appointee sitting in San Francisco.

She is the same judge who tried to freeze Trump's government-wide reduction-in-force executive order back in May of 2025.

The Supreme Court stepped in that July and lifted her block, ruling the administration was likely to win on the merits.

Illston lost at the highest court in the country and went right back to blocking Trump's personnel decisions anyway.

Federal employee unions brought this new lawsuit specifically over FEMA, and Illston sided with them.

Illston is not some outlier stopping one rogue policy.

She has now tried to block Trump's staffing authority twice in under two years, and the Supreme Court already told her once she got it wrong.

Judge Cites a 2005 Katrina Law to Handcuff FEMA Reform

Illston's legal theory rests on a provision Congress passed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

That law bars DHS from "substantially or significantly" reducing FEMA's authorities, responsibilities, or functions.

Illston found DHS crossed that line when it blocked FEMA from renewing temporary disaster-response contracts without giving any real reason.

"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.

Then-Secretary Kristi Noem set the cuts in motion before DHS leadership changed hands.

Illston also took a shot at DHS and FEMA officials for deleting Signal app messages about the staffing plan.

She said the deletions were bad enough that she is presuming the missing texts would have hurt the administration's case.

That is a judge punishing the government for using an encrypted app, not for anything FEMA actually failed to do.

Illston stopped short of ordering any fix in Friday's ruling.

She set a hearing for October 9 to decide what remedy, if any, she will impose.

FEMA is not sitting quiet in the meantime.

A FEMA spokesperson said the agency is ready for hurricane season under "President Trump and DHS Secretary Mullin's leadership," with experienced staff still in place at headquarters and regional offices.

The Same Judge Already Lost This Fight Once at the Supreme Court

Illston is betting that a Katrina-era statute buys her a second bite at blocking the same kind of staffing decision the Supreme Court already told her to leave alone.

That is not judicial caution, that is a district judge in San Francisco deciding her own read of executive authority beats the Supreme Court's.

The justices have spent the last year narrowing exactly this kind of judicial intrusion into how a president staffs his own government, including a 2026 ruling that cemented Trump's power to remove leadership at agencies Congress once called independent.

FEMA has been a punching bag for both parties for years, and Trump ran on fixing it, not preserving a bloated bureaucracy that failed North Carolina and failed Los Angeles.

DHS still has to decide whether to appeal before Illston's October 9 hearing, and if this case follows the last one, the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court will get the final word, not a single judge in San Francisco.

Hurricane season runs through November, and every week this fight drags on is a week FEMA answers to a San Francisco courtroom instead of finishing the reorganization Trump ordered to get the agency from 22,700 employees down to a leaner 11,383 before the next storm hits.

Sources:

• Alexandra Koch, "Federal judge rules Trump admin plan to cut FEMA workforce in half is unlawful," Fox News, September 12, 2026.
• "US judge rules that Trump plan to halve FEMA workforce violated law," CNBC, September 12, 2026.
• "Trump's plan to halve FEMA workforce illegal, judge rules," The Hill, September 12, 2026.
• "California Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin's FEMA Workforce Cuts," Slay News, September 13, 2026.
• "Supreme Court allows Trump administration to implement plans to significantly reduce the federal workforce," SCOTUSblog, July 2025.
• "Supreme Court cements Trump's power over agencies long considered independent," NPR, June 29, 2026.