Judge William Alsup, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Trump administration must rehire thousands of probationary workers it fired in multiple agencies, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Thursday.
The Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell, lacked the authority to fire the workers, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said. The departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury were directed to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated in mid-February. Alsup 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 regarding each person.
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“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.”
Government lawyers countered that the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment. Alsup had planned to hold an evidentiary hearing on Thursday, but Ezell did not appear to testify in court or sit for a deposition, and the government withdrew his declaration.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations. “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, one of the plaintiffs.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the ruling.
"A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the executive branch," she said. "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."
Multiple lawsuits are challenging the mass firings. Another judge in Maryland also appeared skeptical of the administration in a Wednesday hearing in a lawsuit brought by nearly two dozen states. A judge in the nation’s capital, on the other hand, ruled against unions last month, finding the fired workers needed to work through a process set out in employment law.
Federal employees are finding other openings to overturn the terminations. The Merit Systems Protection Board, which mediates disputes between federal workers and their employers, ordered the USDA to temporarily reinstate more than 5,000 terminated employees while an independent commission investigates their firing.
An estimated 200,000 probationary workers are employed across federal agencies. They include entry level employees and workers who recently received a promotion.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
