A judge in Maryland has blocked for now the mass firings of probationary federal workers and ordered thousands of fired probationary workers to be reinstated, marking the second decision of its kind in a day.
The order from U.S. District Judge James Bredar came late Thursday in a lawsuit filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia against multiple federal agencies alleging the mass firings are illegal.
“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice,” Bredar wrote. “It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons. On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively.”
The states contend the Trump administration blindsided them by ignoring laws set out for large-scale layoffs, which already are having an impact on state governments as they try to help the suddenly jobless. At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since President Trump took office, the lawsuit alleges, though efforts by the judge to get an estimate from a government attorney at a hearing Wednesday were unsuccessful.
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The Trump administration argues that the states have no right to try and influence the federal government’s relationship with its own workers. Mr. Trump has said he’s targeting fraud, waste and abuse in a bloated federal government.
In his temporary restraining order, Bredar issued a 14-day stay on what he called “illegal” reductions in force. His order, however, did not apply to firings at the Department of Defense, the National Archives and Records Administration and the Office of Personnel Management.
“So, although it is a close call, at this early stage, and given that a TRO is ‘an extraordinary remedy that may only be awarded upon a clear showing that the plaintiff is entitled to such relief,’…there is insufficient basis in the record for the Court to conclude that RIFs likely occurred at these three agencies,” Bredar wrote.
Earlier Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco also ordered the Trump’s administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that the terminations were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so.
The administration immediately filed an appeal of the injunction with the Ninth Circuit Court. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier Thursday cast the ruling as an attempt to encroach on executive power to hire and fire employees.
“The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order,” she said in a statement.
Alsup’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14. He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.
