Six Federal Agencies Must Rehire Thousands of Fired Workers (4)

A San Francisco federal judge ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of the government’s newest employees who were terminated in February.

Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued an injunction from the bench on Thursday finding the Office of Personnel Management’s order to federal agency heads to fire probationary employees was illegal.

“It is a sad day when our government would fire a good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that is a lie,” Alsup said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

The order requires the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Treasury to rehire the employees who were laid off around Feb. 13 at the direction of the OPM, the federal government’s HR department.

The Trump administration said just hours after the injunction that it is appealing the order to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Alsup’s order called the OPM’s template termination letter for agencies a “sham.” Each of the agencies must submit a list of terminated probationary employees to the court within a week explaining what has been done for each, he said.

The ruling is a major blow to the Trump administration’s campaign to quickly shrink the size of the federal workforce. Federal worker layoffs are expected to reach into the hundreds of thousands in coming weeks.

Alsup had previously ordered a temporary pause on any additional agency layoffs at the direction of OPM or its acting director Charles Ezell.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement called the injunction “absurd and unconstitutional.”

“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,” she said.

Judge’s Criticism

At the hearing Thursday, Alsup criticized the government’s handling of the firings and the subsequent litigation. He pointed to evidence of agencies firing employees under the auspices of low performance when in fact they had just received glowing reviews.

The judge, a Bill Clinton appointee, also condemned the government’s decision to refuse to make Ezell available to testify on Thursday about the decision-making behind the OPM’s directive to agencies. The acting director had submitted a written declaration under oath to the court explaining OPM’s decision, but the government later rescinded the declaration after Alsup ordered Ezell to testify and face cross examination.

Ezell should have faced cross examination so that “we get to the truth,” Alsup told the government’s attorney at the Thursday hearing.

“I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth,” he said.

“It upsets me,” Alsup said. “I’ve been serving in or on this court for over 50 years” and “you’re giving me press releases, sham documents” instead of live witnesses, he said.

The plaintiffs called it an “important victory” for federal workers.

“We’re going to keep holding this administration accountable whenever and wherever they try to undermine the rights of the people of the United States under the cynical guise of reform,” said Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

Options Outside Court

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.

The future of that commission, the Office of the Special Counsel, is up in the air after Trump fired its leader Hampton Dellinger, who recently withdrew his lawsuit challenging the termination.

Trump also fired MSPB Member Cathy Harris, a Democrat, making it harder for a few weeks for the board to make decisions. A federal judge reinstated her.

The Trump administration is appealing that ruling. The typically three-member panel now has one Republican and one Democrat, after the third member’s term expired. Trump has the opportunity to give the board a Republican majority by nominating a third member.

Four law firms are separately urging the MSPB to reinstate workers fired by 19 agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. The San Francisco judge didn’t include either agency in his Thursday order.

Alsup has played a role in halting Trump administration action before. In 2018, the judge temporarily blocked the first administration from rescinding the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program protecting the children of undocumented immigrants. That case ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, where the justices affirmed the Alsup’s decision.

Altshuler Berzon LLP and State Democracy Defenders Fund represent the plaintiffs. The US Department of Justice represents OPM.

The case is Am. Fed. of Gov’t Emp. AFL-CIO v. OPM, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-01780, 3/13/25.