WASHINGTON 

A federal judge blocked US President Donald Trump from executing mass layoffs during the ongoing government shutdown Wednesday, a tactic the president has adopted to attempt to pressure Democrats into acceding to his demands.

"The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws," District Court Judge Susan Yvonne Illston told the administration's attorneys in court, according to NBC News. "You can’t do this in a nation of laws."

Illston was presiding over a lawsuit brought by two unions representing federal employees last month who sued after the Trump administration said it would implement layoffs, known as reductions in force, during any potential shutdown.

Illston agreed to grant the plaintiffs an immediate temporary restraining order, saying the administration has "taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore, and they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don’t like."

NBC News said the judge is expected to issue an order in writing later Wednesday.

The shutdown is now on its 15th day with little sign that Trump and congressional Republicans, nor Democrats are ready to budge.

Republicans insist the government be funded at existing levels through late November via what is known as a continuing resolution. Democrats have sought to include an extension on health care subsidies that are expected to expire at the end of the year, and a reversal of Medicaid and other health cuts under Trump's mammoth spending bill.