Tonight’s one-item constitutional special: a federal judge in Northern California ruled that the Department of Homeland Security unlawfully usurped FEMA’s personnel authority and ordered the disaster agency toward a 50% staffing reduction. The court granted partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs and denied the government’s cross-motion. Read the court order.
Judge Susan Illston found that the post-Katrina law keeps FEMA a distinct DHS entity, puts FEMA personnel functions with FEMA, and bars DHS from substantially reducing FEMA’s mission capability without a later act of Congress. In other words, Congress installed guardrails after Katrina and DHS apparently treated them like the cones outside the nonexistent Winchester McDonald’s. Read the court order.
The judge did not impose a final remedy yet; she ordered the parties to confer about relief. The Associated Press reports the planned 50% cut was ultimately not carried out, though FEMA has already been battered by departures and staffing disruption. That is a hell of a way to run the federal outfit Americans need when the weather decides to start throwing furniture. Read AP’s reporting.
Sources
- https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.491.0.pdf
- https://apnews.com/article/fema-staffing-cuts-half-ruling-homeland-security-e56494458ed43faacccebb3d62eeb30f
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Featured image: Daily briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 2026 – 1.jpg by DHSgov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
