A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of probationary government workers who were fired last month, ruling that their terminations by the Office of Personnel Management (OMB) were unlawful.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup claimed OMB’s Acting Director Charles Ezell lacked the authority to to fire the Executive Branch workers, the Associated Press reported. There are approximately 200,000 probationary workers across federal agencies.
Tens of thousands of probationary government workers were let go in February as part of President Trump’s plan to “downsize the federal bureaucracy and eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity.”
White House White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately pushed back with a fiery statement: “The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”
Trump ally Mike Davis also slammed the decision on X, arguing that the president has the authority to “fire any executive branch worker.”
“Under Article II of the Constitution, the President can fire any executive branch worker he wants, at any time he wants, for any reason he wants,” Davis posted Thursday afternoon. “Like Members of Congress can fire their workers, under Article I. Like federal judges can fire their workers, under Article III.”
Alsup was appointed to the Northern District of California in 1999 by President Bill Clinton and assumed senior status in 2021.
The judge’s order directs the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer to reinstate the fired employees.
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.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to dramatically downsize the federal workforce.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that the terminations were an attack on “the rule of law.”
“These mass-firings of federal workers were not just an attack on government agencies and their ability to function, they were also a direct assault on public lands, wildlife, and the rule of law,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections and cannot appeal.
The judge appeared outraged that employees were fired for poor performance despite allegedly receiving “glowing evaluations” months earlier.
“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,” he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”
Lawyers for the Trump administration reportedly argued that the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies had “reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.”
But Alsup found that difficult to believe.
The judge noted that federal law allows for agencies to engage in a “reduction-in-force,” but doing so comes with several requirements.
“It can be done if it’s in accordance with the law,” he said. “This case is not about that. What this case is about is really an attempt to do a reduction-in-force” through OPM, the federal government’s chief human resources agency.
He said that having OPM direct firings across multiple agencies was an “easy way to get a reduction-in-force underway” and a “gimmick.”
Alsup encouraged the government to appeal his ruling.