A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday ruled that mass firings ordered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were likely unlawful, ordering a temporary relief in favor of labor unions.
Newsweek reached out via email to the White House for comment on Thursday evening.
Why It Matters
Only five weeks in, President Donald Trump’s second administration has been pulled into a drag-out fight in courts across the country to defend its efforts to rapidly and significantly slash the federal workforce. The billionaire Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial agency created by executive order, has spearheaded the reductions, mainly through the OPM.
DOGE set up shop in the OPM within the first weeks following Trump’s second inauguration, locking career civil servants out of OPM computer systems by the end of January, according to Reuters.
The administration, meanwhile, has faced pushback on its aggressive agenda, mainly through legal challenges that have played out in the courts over the past few weeks. The ax has already fallen on the U.S. Agency for International Development, which a judge on Friday ruled was not protected despite concerns of staffers stationed overseas as part of their missions in dangerous countries and environs.
What To Know
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, in San Francisco on Thursday ordered the OPM to inform federal agencies that it “does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe” to hire or fire any employees on its own.
The suit, brought by five labor unions and nonprofit organizations, was filed in response to the February 13 OPM order to agencies that they needed to terminate all probationary employees. The OPM initially had ordered agencies to only cut those workers if they had a poor performance, but it changed course to a wholesale clear-out just days later.
The groups behind the lawsuit include the American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFGE Local 1216 and United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals.
The plaintiffs allege that the OPM “in one fell swoop has perpetrated one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country, telling tens of thousands of workers that they are being fired for performance reasons, when they most certainly were not.”
Alsup agreed, telling the OPM to inform agencies represented in the lawsuit that it lacked authority to issue the order in the first place. He slammed the government for targeting probationary employees, calling them the “lifeblood of our government,” and marking them with a poor performance to justify the firing.
What People Are Saying
Danielle Leonard, attorney for the labor coalition, told reporters following the hearing: “What it means in practical effects is the agencies of the federal government should hear the court’s warning that that order was unlawful.”
What Happens Next
Alsup set an evidentiary hearing for March 13. The judge also plans to issue a written order, per the Associated Press.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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