Federal judges in Maryland and California made orders on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration must reinstate thousands of probationary federal employees who had been terminated in massive layoffs at 19 agencies. The orders, which were issued before a deadline for additional government layoffs, severely dented the administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.
US District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore backed 20 Democrat-governed states, insisting that 18 agencies, some of which include the Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the US Agency for International Development, broke rules with regards to workers’ layoffs. Bredar granted a restraining order that touches on several other agencies like Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, and Veterans Affairs.
Although the Trump administration claimed the job cuts were being made due to individual performance, Bredar said that there was no basis for mass firing on performance. “The enormity of employees who were terminated within days runs counter to any contention that those terminations resulted from employees’ individual deficient performance or behavior,” Bredar, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote in his ruling.
This decision followed a few days after US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco directed the re-employment of workers who were fired at six agencies, among them the US Department of Defence. Alsup underscored that the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had no authority to compel these en masse dismissals. “It is a sad day when our government would let some good employees go and claim it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup, a Bill Clinton appointee, said.
The White House reacted quickly, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating the administration would “immediately fight back.” She claimed, “The President has the right to exercise the power of the entire executive branch – singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to block the President’s agenda.”
The Trump administration and its senior adviser Elon Musk have been trying to shrink the federal bureaucracy, which had around 2.3 million employees when Trump was sworn in. In line with this, at least 24,000 probationary workers have been terminated since Trump’s return to office. Probationary workers have less than a year of service and less job protection, but can usually only be terminated for performance reasons.
The Democratic-controlled states that brought the lawsuit allege that the mass firings were not carried out in accordance with mandated procedures, including giving 60 days’ notice to state and local governments prior to layoffs. They contend that the dismissals constitute an avalanche of unemployment claims and increased demand for social services. The Trump administration, however, insists that agencies have discretion to fire probationary employees for all but any reason.
The suit, brought by unions, nonprofits, and the state of Washington, argues that the wholesale dismissals were unlawful because they were ordered by the OPM instead of the specific agencies. American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley, whose organization has 800,000 federal workers as members, called Alsup’s ruling an essential victory. “This is a critical victory over an administration bent on hamstringing federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public,” Kelley said.
Elsewhere, the Merit Systems Protection Board had earlier instructed the Agriculture Department to reinstate nearly 6,000 probationary employees temporarily.
