First, San Francisco US District Judge William Alsup said that the terminations were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so and ordered Trump administration to rehire.
Alsup’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about February 13 and 14.
He 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 as to each person.
The second order from Maryland US District Judge James Bredar came late Thursday in a lawsuit filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia against multiple federal agencies alleging the mass firings are illegal.
The states contend the Trump administration blindsided them by ignoring laws set out for large-scale layoffs, which already are having an impact on state governments as they try to help the suddenly jobless.
At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since US President Donald Trump took office, the lawsuit alleges, though efforts by the judge to get an estimate from a government attorney at a hearing Wednesday were unsuccessful.
The Trump administration argues that the states have no right to try and influence the federal government’s relationship with its own workers. Trump, a Republican, has said he’s targeting fraud, waste and abuse in a bloated federal government.
There are an estimated 200,000 probationary workers across federal agencies. They include entry-level employees but also workers who recently received a promotion.
