The Trump administration has sought special dispensation to imminently cut staff at State, but employees won a—potentially short-lived—reprieve.

A federal judge in California on Friday temporarily blocked the U.S. State Department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes nearly 2,000 layoffs. U.S. District Judge Susan

In the ruling, Judge Matthew J. Maddox of the Federal District Court in Maryland said that the law only allowed Mr. Trump to fire the officials for “neglect of duty or malfeasance,” while Mr. Trump had purported to fire them without cause.