A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring President Donald Trump to reinstate thousands of probationary employees across a dozen federal agencies. The ruling is another setback to Trump’s efforts to reshape and downsize the federal workforce.
Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled in favor of Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and Washington, D.C., who had challenged the administration’s mass firings of probationary employees. The restraining order, which lasts 14 days, affects thousands of employees who were terminated since Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Judge Rules Federal Firings Unlawful, Orders Immediate Reinstatement of Affected Employees
The lawsuit, filed on March 6 by the attorneys general, argued that these terminations amounted to “reductions in force” (RIFs), which require agencies to give employees and state governments 60 days’ notice. The Trump administration claimed the firings were due to poor performance, but the states argued that the sudden dismissals did not follow federal workforce reduction protocols. Judge Bredar, an Obama appointee, agreed that the lack of notice left states unprepared to handle the surge of unemployed workers.
Judge Orders Reinstatement of Thousands of Federal Employees in Major Legal Setback for TrumpIn his ruling, Judge Bredar emphasized that federal agencies failed to comply with regulations designed to protect employees and ensure that states could prepare for mass layoffs. He noted that the failure to provide notice impaired the states’ ability to meet their legal obligations to their citizens. As a result, the judge ordered the immediate reinstatement of affected employees, stating that the dismissals were unlawful and needed to be stayed to allow the states to catch up.
Reinstatement Order Affects Multiple Federal Agencies but Excludes Defense and Key Departments
The reinstatement order covers employees from multiple federal departments, including Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.
Additionally, it applies to workers from agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
However, the ruling does not cover firings at the Department of Defense, the Office of Personnel Management, and the National Archives, as the attorneys general could not provide sufficient evidence that those terminations constituted reductions in force.
The ruling in Maryland followed a similar decision by a federal judge in California, who ordered the White House to reinstate furloughed workers at several agencies. In that case, Judge William Alsup ruled in favor of workers’ unions and mandated the reinstatement of employees from the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Veterans Affairs, and Treasury.
These rulings represent significant legal setbacks to the Trump administration’s efforts to restructure the federal workforce and highlight the growing legal challenges surrounding the administration’s handling of employment policies.