A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with a plan to buy out tens of thousands of government workers.
Boston US District Judge George O’Toole Jr. said he would pause a deadline requiring all federal employees to either take the buyout offer or return to their offices until he determines whether to slap the administration with a preliminary injunction sought by three public sector unions, Reuters and ABC News reported.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offered the buyouts on Jan. 28 to more than 2 million federal workers after President Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies “to terminate remote work arrangements” and to force employees back to “their respective duty stations” full-time.
Last week, the American Federation of Government Employees; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and National Association of Government Employees as well as 20 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit seeking to halt OPM acting director Charles Ezell from enforcing the memo — titled “Fork in the Road” — that offered buyouts to the executive branch workers.
OPM warned last week that government employees who did not take the buyout by Feb. 6 would not be given a second chance to receive full pay and benefits until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.
O’Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, paused that deadline until Monday at 11:59 p.m. following the afternoon hearing.
More than 65,000 federal workers have already cashed out as part of the so-called “Deferred Resignation” program, according to an OPM spokeswoman.
Lawyers for the government unions have argued in filings that Ezell’s resignation push is unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act and Antideficiency Act. Those laws prohibit the federal government from entering a contract that is not fully funded and lay out steps for agencies to propose and establish regulations.
The unions’ lawyers also said the buyout lacked congressional authorization and argued that those who chose to step down from their federal roles weren’t even certain of the terms of severance — while those who refused to resign were still under “threat of mass termination” due to the Trump administration’s return-to-office “ultimatum.”
Critics of the Trump plan have pointed out that Congress has a March 14 deadline to prevent a partial government shutdown, meaning that OPM cannot guarantee the promised eight months of salary and benefits to those who take the offer.
Justice Department attorneys arguing on behalf of the administration have maintained that the voluntary buyouts constitute the president’s lawful exercising of his powers and that delaying the deadline further would be “remarkably disruptive” and prompt “inequitable repercussions.”
Nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general submitted a brief to the Boston federal court arguing in favor of the Trump administration’s directive as well.
“Americans’ confidence in the federal government has reached depths not seen since the Vietnam War,” the state AGs led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen wrote in their amicus brief, claiming most of their constituents a “believe the federal government is too large, inefficient, and wasteful.”
Tech billionaire Elon Musk spearheaded the Fork Directive, which borrows language and actions from layoffs he led after taking over Twitter, now X, as CEO two years prior.
Musk, one of the president’s closest confidants, was announced as a “special government employee” of the White House to eliminate federal waste, fraud and abuse as part of his work with the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).