OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
2:38 PM – Thursday, March 13, 2025
A federal judge in San Francisco, California, ruled that the Office of Personnel Management’s terminations of probationary employees last month was “illegal” and he ordered six federal agencies to reinstate them.
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The Trump administration is expected to appeal the judge’s ruling.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued his ruling in a bench challenge against the Trump administration, filed by a collection of unions. He claimed that OPM and its Acting Director Charles Ezell lacked the power to order the agency-wide terminations.
Retired employees of the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Treasury are “granted relief under the directive.”
“It is a sad, 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,” Alsup said confidently, without explaining why he believes it is a lie — at the end of a hearing on the unions’ request for a preliminary injunction. “That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements.”
The judge, who was appointed by former Democrat President Bill Clinton, did admit that agencies are permitted by federal law to implement “reduction-in-force,” the government’s term for mass layoffs, but there are a “number of requirements.”
“It can be done if it’s in accordance with the law,” he continued. “This case is not about that. What this case is about is really an attempt to do a reduction-in-force” via The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
He tried to argue that having the OPM direct departments to fire probationary workers was an “easy way to get a reduction-in-force underway” and a “gimmick.”
The court also questioned President Trump’s termination of former special counsel Hampton Dellinger and attempts to terminate members of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which monitors the administrative appeals of federal workers challenging their firings.
A “single judge [Alsup] is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the executive branch,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later announced in a statement.
“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,” she continued. “The Trump administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”
After a hearing on the unions’ request for a preliminary injunction that lasted about two hours, the judge issued his order.
“I know how we get at the truth, and you’re not helping me,” the judge said, becoming visibly heated. He maintained that he could not figure out whether OPM directed agencies to fire probationary workers, or whether the agency heads acted on their own.
Ultimately, Alsup came to the conclusion that the human resources agency instructed departments to fire employees that were not deemed “mission critical.”
He also bizarrely dismissed the Justice Department’s reminder that the agency heads themselves made the decisions, as made evident by the press releases announcing the terminations.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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