A federal court has blocked the sweeping termination of staff at the top US consumer protection agency, a day after the Trump administration moved to axe about 1,500 of the agency’s 1,700 workforce, while officials investigate whether the action violated existing judicial orders.

The ruling from the judge Amy Berman Jackson put a legal hurdle in front of mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Thursday, which came after a federal appeals court modified – but did not eliminate – an injunction limiting the agency’s ability to terminate employees.

According to a declaration from an employee who had been laid off, filed under the pseudonym Alex Doe, this week’s layoffs were managed by Gavin Kliger, a staffer at the tech billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge. “He kept the team up for 36 hours straight to ensure that the notices would go out yesterday (17 April).”