Judge orders Trump to reverse thousands of ‘sham’ federal worker firings
A federal judge on Thursday excoriated the Trump administration, ruling they illegally fired thousands of probationary federal employees and ordered the administration to immediately offer those workers their jobs back.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup's ruling means thousands of workers at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Treasury who were fired as part of President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk's failing efforts to slash the federal budget, will be offered their jobs back.
“It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said from the bench, according to Politico. “That should not have been done in our country.”
Alsup also accused the Justice Department lawyers of willfully hiding facts to cover up their "sham" firings of federal employees.
“You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth,” Alsup said at a hearing, Politico reported. “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth. … I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth.”
The lawsuit, filed by a group of federal employee unions, said that the firings were illegal because the Office of Personnel Management—which directed federal agencies to carry out the mass firings—did not have the authority to fire the probationary workers.
In the federal government, probationary workers also include employees who receive promotions, and the unions accused the Trump administration of “exploiting and misusing the probationary period to eliminate staff across federal agencies.”
"OPM … acted unlawfully by directing federal agencies to use a standardized termination notice falsely claiming performance issues,” the American Federation of Government Employees union, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, said. “Congress, not OPM, controls and authorizes federal employment and related spending by the federal administrative agencies, and Congress has determined that each agency is responsible for managing its own employees.”
After the ruling, the AFGE said it was "pleased" with Alsup's decision to "immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public.”
“We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back," Everett Kelley, national president of the AFGE, said in a news release.
This is not the first win for federal workers. More than 5,000 probationary workers for the U.S. Department of Agriculture won a reprieve March 5, when the chair of a federal civil service board ordered them reinstated for 45 days, Politico reported.
The mass firings of federal workers have caused chaos within the federal government, and have endangered national security and public health.
Already, the slapdash way Trump and Musk ordered the firings led the administration to beg some fired employees to return, including air traffic controllers, experts who protect the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, and public health workers who were crafting the administration’s plan to stop the spread of the bird flu.
And economists are warning that the mass firings could cause an economic collapse.
Polling also shows the firings are a political liability for Trump. A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday found 60% of voters disapprove of the way Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency are dealing with federal workers. And 54% think Musk and DOGE are “hurting the country.”
While the ruling is a win for federal workers for now, Alsup said that the Trump administration can fire workers—just in the correct way.
“The words that I give you today should not be taken that some wild-and-crazy judge in San Francisco said that an administration cannot engage in a reduction in force,” Alsup said. “It can be done, if it’s done in accordance with the law.”
Meanwhile, the White House said it plans to appeal Alsup's ruling.
"The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
Ultimately, Thursday was yet another day where the Trump administration lost in court. Sad!