A judge called it unlawful

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled Friday in a 32-page order that the Trump administration broke the law last year by stripping FEMA of control over its own personnel decisions.

“acted unlawfully in usurping FEMA's authority over its personnel”

23,000 down to 11,500

DHS directed a plan to cut FEMA's workforce roughly in half and blocked the renewal of hundreds of temporary disaster-response workers. Federal employee unions sued.

FEMA's own people objected

Court documents say DHS officials pushed through a staffing plan with a 50 percent cut over the objections and analysis of FEMA supervisors, including its chief human capital officer.

“submit a FEMA annual staffing plan that included a 50% cut, over the objections and analyses of FEMA's own supervisors”

Trump wanted states to carry it

The president has argued states should own disaster preparedness and has floated eliminating FEMA entirely as part of a restructuring of federal disaster management.

“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.”

Deleted Signal messages backfired

In a separate ruling, Illston faulted officials for using Signal on personal phones and deleting messages about the cuts. She said the court will assume the lost texts hurt their case.

“the lost Signal messages would have been unfavorable to Defendants”

Katrina wrote the rulebook

After Katrina killed more than 1,300 people, Congress made FEMA a distinct entity inside DHS, gave it control of its own staffing, and barred DHS from shrinking its functions without lawmakers.

“far too bureaucratic to support the response to a catastrophe”

No penalty yet

The ruling ordered no remedies. If the two sides cannot agree, they file a joint list of open disputes by October 9, and Illston decides on relief later. Hurricane season is still running.