A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down the Job Corps program—marking the second such ruling in less than a month. The program, the largest federally funded residential job training initiative in the U.S., serves thousands of low-income young people nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday preventing the Department of Labor (DOL) from closing 99 privately operated Job Corps centers. Friedrich ruled that the agency acted unlawfully by attempting to unilaterally shut down the centers without following procedures required under federal law.
The decision stems from a May 29, 2025, notice the DOL sent to all 99 centers, instructing them to cease operations by June 30. The abrupt closure sparked a lawsuit from seven current Job Corps enrollees—hailing from Georgia, Mississippi, Oregon, North Dakota, and Michigan—filed on behalf of themselves and the tens of thousands of students affected by the program’s shutdown.
The plaintiffs, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Public Citizen, argued the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by failing to provide public notice and comment or conduct individualized assessments prior to the closures.
In response, the Labor Department claimed its actions constituted a temporary “pause,” not a closure—an argument Judge Friedrich firmly rejected.
“This argument fails because DOL’s across-the-board shutdown extended far beyond any ‘pause’ contemplated by the statute,” Friedrich wrote. “The agency suspended operations at all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers without any expectation of future reopenings.”
She added that the administration did not follow basic legal requirements, such as conducting performance evaluations or drafting improvement plans, before deciding to suspend operations. The move, Friedrich noted, was “not only unprecedented” but also broke from how the agency had historically handled temporary pauses.
Unlike previous cases where students were transferred or given the option to return, this shutdown came with no such assurances. Students were informed they had no expectation of continuing at another center or returning to their current one.
“The record unequivocally demonstrates that DOL unlawfully ‘closed’ all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers, in violation of the WIOA,” Friedrich wrote. “DOL’s position is entirely circular: So long as the agency uses the term ‘pause,’ it believes it can sidestep its statutory obligations entirely. That cannot be correct.”
Adam Pulver, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, applauded the ruling, calling the Department’s legal defense “ludicrous.”
“The Department of Labor’s decision to abruptly close Job Corps centers across the country, ignoring legal requirements and literally putting vulnerable young people on the street, was callous—and, as the judge agreed today, illegal,” Pulver said in a statement.
The preliminary injunction restores operations at all 99 centers while the lawsuit proceeds, offering a lifeline to thousands of young people who rely on Job Corps for housing, education, and job training.
