The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is laying off certain employees who were notified months ago of the reduction in force (RIF) after the Supreme Court lifted a district court order blocking the layoffs, an agency spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech.
"Given the Supreme Court's ruling, HHS is now permitted to move forward with a portion of its RIF. Accordingly, you are hereby notified that you are officially separated from HHS at the close of business on July 14, 2025,” an agency email sent to affected employees on July 14 said.
“Thank you for your service to the American people,” the email concluded.
The spokesperson would not share how many employees received the July 14 email, instead pointing to HHS’ original March 27 plan to cut the agency’s workforce by 10,000 employees as part of a massive restructuring.
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., later claimed that 20% of the 10,000 RIF notices were sent in error. His revision included reinstating 450 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early June.
Many employees who received a RIF notice as part of the March 27 plan were placed on administrative leave, with some barred from entering their workplaces.
Federal staffers who received a notice but were later reinstated did not receive the July 14 termination email, the HHS spokesperson said, and neither did notified employees covered by a temporary restraining order in a different case, New York v. Kennedy, that was issued on July 1. Those employees largely come from the CDC, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, the HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Head Start, the spokesperson said.
The plaintiffs in New York v. Kennedy (PDF) are attorneys general from 19 states, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Michigan.
The Supreme Court’s July 8 decision lifted a block to the federal layoffs that had been handed down by a California district court on May 22, pending a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the Supreme Court lacked the on-the-ground knowledge “to fully evaluate, much less responsibly override, reasoned lower court factfinding about what this challenged executive action actually entails.”
Jackson’s fellow liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, however, agreed with lifting the block on the order “because it leaves the District Court free to consider” whether the layoffs will be implemented in compliance with the law.
“The decision by the Supreme Court to allow these mass layoffs sets a dangerous precedent, because as Justice Jackson noted, the president’s actions are legally dubious, and litigation is still pending,” Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Co., the ranking member of the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, said in a July 15 statement. “It is moving forward before the legal questions over whether the president has the authority to unilaterally dismantle agencies have been addressed.”
“The only winners from these layoffs are China and measles,” DeGette added. “Donald Trump and RFK Jr. are creating a void in global leadership while abandoning the health challenges of our time.”