A federal judge ruled late Friday that the Trump administration's plan to slash FEMA's workforce nearly in half broke the law, delivering a sharp rebuke over both the policy itself and how officials handled internal communications about it.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco found that the Department of Homeland Security unlawfully "usurped FEMA's authority over its own personnel" when it moved to cut the agency's staff from about 23,000 employees to roughly 11,500. The lawsuit was brought by federal employee unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees.

A Law Born of Katrina

Illston's ruling centers on the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, passed after the government's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina specifically to shield FEMA's staffing and structure from political interference by requiring congressional authorization for any "substantial or significant" reduction of the agency's functions. The cuts at issue were directed under then-Secretary Kristi Noem.

The judge also took aim at how DHS and FEMA officials discussed the staffing plan — over Signal messages on personal phones that were later deleted. Illston wrote that she would presume the deleted messages "would have been unfavorable to Defendants," a finding that amounts to a rebuke of the administration's record-keeping during the litigation, according to UPI's report on the ruling.

DELETED MESSAGES "WOULD HAVE BEEN UNFAVORABLE TO DEFENDANTS" — JUDGE SUSAN ILLSTON

Illston did not immediately order any remedy, such as reinstating positions, and instead directed the parties to file any remaining disputes by Oct. 9, with a ruling on relief to follow. The Associated Press reported the decision lands amid a broader pattern of court fights over the administration's efforts to shrink federal agencies without congressional sign-off, and as hurricane season continues. Emergency-management experts and union officials have warned the cuts would hollow out the country's disaster-response capacity, while the administration has defended the reductions as a streamlining effort. The Justice Department is expected to appeal.