U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Friday halted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's attempt to lay off the vast majority of its employees and gut the agency.
Her order comes after the CFPB had sent reduction-in-force notices to more than 1,400 staffers across the agency on Thursday.
The CFPB had proceeded with layoffs after a three-judge panel last week had ruled the agency could conduct a reduction in force if it made "a particularized assessment" to determine which employees were "unnecessary" for the bureau's performance of its statutory duties.
But the CFPB's union immediately took legal action seeking to halt the mass layoffs, saying the agency had not in fact conducted the thorough assessment required by that three-judge panel.