A federal judge has ruled that recent mass layoffs at the US Department of Health and Human Services were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce.

A Rhode Island judge granted the preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May.

As an office of the executive branch, the Department of Health and Human Services “does not have the authority” to implement sweeping changes to the structure of the agency as created by Congress, a judge wrote.