Tens of thousands of fired federal workers must be reinstated immediately, judge rules

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

03/13/2025 12:35 PM EDT

A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump's turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a "sham" strategy by the government's central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce.

Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to "immediately" offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back. The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made an "unlawful" decision to terminate them.

The order is one of the most far-reaching rejections of the Trump administration's effort to slash the bureaucracy and is almost certain to be appealed.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/13/fired-federal-probationary-employees-court-ruling-00228721

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Just breaking. Short article at post time.

Interesting part from CNN's article -

Judge orders Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired employees at VA, Defense Department and other agencies

By Devan Cole, CNN
Updated 12:52 PM EDT, Thu March 13, 2025

(snip)

The ruling came after Alsup unloaded on the Justice Department for not making the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management available to testify about the Trump administration’s decision to fire scores of probationary employees. He had ordered acting OMB director Charles Ezell to testify Thursday, where he would likely face tough questions from attorneys representing labor unions and others that are challenging his agency’s role in the firings.

But the Justice Department refused to make him available and instead withdrew a declaration Ezell submitted last month that had served as the government’s only evidence in the case. “You’re afraid to do so because you know cross-examination will reveal the truth,” Alsup told DOJ attorney Kelsey Helland. “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth.”

Alsup told the DOJ attorney Thursday: “You can’t just say, ‘here’s a declaration, you have to accept it without question’ when there is a question.” “You’re not helping me get at the truth. You’re giving me press releases – sham documents,” the judge said, referring to documents submitted by the DOJ to the court that they say shows how the agencies were making the termination decisions themselves.

The declaration from Ezell said that OPM did not “direct” other agencies to terminate probationary employees — the central issue in the case brought by labor unions and others. But Alsup has already said that the evidence in the case “points in favor” of the plaintiffs, and he’s cast doubt on the Justice Department’s argument that various federal agencies fired probationary employees because of their own decision-making.

(snip)