A federal judge has ruled that recent mass layoffs at the US Department of Health and Human Services were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce.

A federal judge has found that the Trump administration’s massive cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were unlawful. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Biden appointee, ruled Tuesday that the sweeping HHS cuts following Trump coming into office were “arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to the law.

Tuesday’s court ruling applies to workers in four key areas of HHS: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug