Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a preliminary injunction to protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from further dismantlement as she evaluates whether the Trump administration has the authority to dismantle it. “Without an injunction to maintain the current situation – safeguarding the agency’s data, operations, and workforce – there is a considerable risk that the defendants will fully destroy the agency unlawfully before the Court can rule on the case, making it impossible to restore,” Jackson stated.

This ruling represents a significant achievement for the federal workers’ union and various groups that depend on the CFPB’s functions. They have filed a lawsuit claiming that the Trump administration is breaching the separation of powers as outlined in the Constitution by attempting to abolish an agency created by Congress. The complainants have cautioned that efforts to wind down the agency have already left many consumers with inadequate options for addressing grievances about financial services. In recent years, the CFPB has played an increasingly important role in regulating the tech industry as tech companies expand into financial services. (For example, Elon Musk’s X aims to eventually offer payment services.)

But as DOGE got involved at the agency, according to reporting and testimony presented before the judge, the CFPB terminated technologists — who would, obviously, be necessary staff when regulating tech companies — and placed much of its workforce on administrative leave. After CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought told agency staff on February 10th to “stand down from performing any work task,” workers testified they followed that order literally. Allegedly, this surprised the administration, with one official later clarifying that statutorily mandated work should still get done.

The judge says she was “left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything,” saying that the government’s arguments that CFPB workers were back to work have “been shown to be unreliable and inconsistent with the agency’s own contemporaneous records.” She also condemned an “eleventh hour attempt to suggest immediately before the hearing that the stop work order was not really a stop work order at all.”

Jackson opens her opinion with quotes from Musk (the public face of DOGE), Vought, and President Donald Trump about their alleged intentions to eliminate the agency. For instance, Musk tweeted “CFPB RIP” on February 7th. “The CFPB has been a woke and weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time. This must end,” Vought said the following day. A couple days later, Trump added, “That was a very important thing to get rid of.”

Jackson came to the conclusion that unless she takes action, “the RIF [reduction-in-force] notices that have already been prepared will go out before the ink is dry on the Court’s signature, the employees will be back on administrative leave for just thirty days before they are gone, and the defendants will pull the plug on the CFPB.” While this isn’t a final ruling, as part of issuing the injunction, Jackson says the workers’ union is likely to ultimately succeed in court on its claims.

The judge orders the Trump administration to reinstate all probationary and term employees terminated since February 10th, carry out no further terminations without cause or issue any RIF notice, lift the administrative leave requirements and stop-work order, and let employees either return to an office or work remotely. She also requires that the government maintain CFPB data and records, and rescind contract termination notices sent since February 11th. Essentially, the CFPB can — for now — get back to work.

Workers are cautiously celebrating. “While we are thrilled and relieved at today’s outcome, union members are under no illusion that this is the end of Trump’s lawless attacks,” CFPB Union President Cat Farman says in a statement. “Vought has already violated previous court orders by deleting data and failing to reinstate illegally fired workers. We can’t rely on judges alone to keep wannabe dictators in check. We need everyone to join the fight to save our services, unionize our workplaces, and create more good middle class jobs doing vital work that benefits working people instead of billionaires and Wall Street.”