US District Judge Carl Nichols said Friday, February 7, that he would enter a “very limited” temporary order to block President Donald Trump from shutting down the US Agency for International Development, more commonly known as USAID. President Trump announced Thursday that he planned to keep only 611 essential workers out of a worldwide workforce of more than 10,000, effectively shutting down all but the barebones operations of USAID. Judge Nichols was appointed to the US district court for the District of Columbia by President Donald Trump in 2019.

The move to dismantle the agency was largely led by Elon Musk as part of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mission to shrink the federal government and cut waste. The stay issued by Judge Nichols is in response to a rapidly put together lawsuit by the largest government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers, who sued Thursday in response to the president’s announcement. The initial steps in Trump’s plan was to put about 2,200 USAID employees on paid leave immediately. Nichols said they should not do that. He is also reportedly weighing another order that would require Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reinstate 500 employees already on leave – a decision the judge said will be made tonight.