A Maryland judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees slashed from the federal workforce, stopping short of a nationwide injunction previously used against the White House.

Maryland U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar ruled the workers must be reinstated by 2 p.m. on April 8, but only in the twenty specific jurisdictions that sued — contrary to plaintiffs’ requests that fired workers nationwide be reinstated. His ruling marked a reversal from a nationwide temporary restraining order he handed down in a sweeping ruling in March that reinstated at least 24,000 probationary employees across the country.

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Since 19 states and the District of Columbia are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Bredar’s decision allows the Trump administration to proceed with the terminations of probationary federal workers located in the 31 states not named in the lawsuit.

Bredar handed the plaintiffs a partial win in agreeing that while Trump has the authority to lay off workers, the government failed to follow administrative procedures during the firings, such as providing affected workers 30 to 60 days advance written notice. 

The White House characterized the extent of the previous nationwide order, which expired on March 27, as unconstitutional. In response to other lawsuits challenging Trump’s directives, the administration has leaned on opinions written by Supreme Court justices such as Amy Coney Barrett to undermine arguments that one judge has the authority to issue a nationwide ruling, per CNN.

“A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch,” the White House said after Bredar’s initial ruling on March 13. “The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch — singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President’s agenda. If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves. The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”

Top Republicans in Washington D.C., including Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, have also joined in on the criticism.

“Although our Founders saw an important role for the judiciary, they didn’t design a system that made judges national policymakers,” Grassley said during a congressional hearing Wednesday.

After his initial ruling, Bredar said that he was “very sensitive to the issue that judges should not step beyond the authority that they have been explicitly granted.” 

“Most of the states in this country have not joined this lawsuit,” he said during a hearing on the case. “You can see the spot that I am hung up on. … I’m of the view that sometimes a nationwide injunction is entirely appropriate, and there are circumstances where that is crystal clear. This isn’t such a situation.” 

Under Bredar’s Tuesday order, fired probationary workers must be rehired in Maryland, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.

Probationary employees are typically classified as federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year and have yet to gain civil service protection. Thousands of such workers have been laid off in compliance with Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order directing federal agencies to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity” from the bureaucracy by “initiating large-scale reductions in force.”

On Feb. 13, the United States Office of Personnel Management issued a directive implementing the executive order instructing federal agencies to lay off most probationary employees. 

The limited scope of Bredar’s latest order comes as the Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop nationwide injunctions.

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In emergency petitions filed with the Supreme Court last month surrounding sweeping injunctions blocking Trump orders, including his directive to end birthright citizenship, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris warned that “universal injunctions have reached epidemic proportions since the start of the current Administration.” 

In a March 27 request asking the Supreme Court to halt a nationwide injunction affecting the president’s effort to target federally funded diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, Harris similarly  said, “A flood of recent suits that raise the question: ‘Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever)’ millions in taxpayer dollars?”