A federal judge has ruled that tens of thousands of employees summarily fired by the Trump administration must be rehired — that is if they even want to return to their jobs.
On Thursday, District Court for the Northern District of California Judge William Alsup ruled that the federal government had illegally fired thousands of probationary employees across six federal agencies in a “sham” operation to circumvent employment laws.
“The reason that [the Office of Personnel Management] wanted to put this based on performance was at least in part — in my judgment — a gimmick to avoid the Reductions in Force Act,” Alsup said in court, noting that the “law always allows you to fire somebody for performance.”
“It is 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 is a lie,” he added. “It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements.”
Alsup ruled that the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and the Treasury needed to “immediately” offer the terminated employees their jobs back, and to follow proper procedure and legal requirements if they wanted to conduct a major workforce reduction. The judge further criticized Trump’s attorneys for attempting to “stonewall” the court’s efforts to “get at the truth.”
In a statement released on social media, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “a single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch.”
“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,” she added.
Trump and Elon Musk, head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that has overseen the firings, have both suggested that the courts should not be able to restrict the president’s power to do what he wants. Trump has threatened to “look at” judges blocking DOGE’s actions, and posted on social media: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.”
The administration is expected to attempt an appeal against Alsup’s ruling, but for now thousands of federal workers summarily ousted from their positions can count a win in their column.
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